


Love Is on The Radio

by perfectdagger (sincerelyste), star_k



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Miscommunication, Smut, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 18:00:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 35,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9914384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincerelyste/pseuds/perfectdagger, https://archiveofourown.org/users/star_k/pseuds/star_k
Summary: “So Louis, who’s the lucky person that will not only get to see Arsenal and Manchester United facing each other, but will also possibly become your girlfriend… or boyfriend? I mean, that’s a good catch, to ask someone out like this on the radio. It will be hard to say no after this.”“It’s, hm, his name is…” Oh boy, Harry was about to pass out, he couldn’t bear to hear what Louis would say. Susie was looking at him, worried eyes watching him from the till as she noticed that Harry had simply abandoned his cupcake duties. “Harry. Harry Styles.”To win a pair of tickets to watch Manchester United playing, Louis may have possibly lied to Nick Grimshaw on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, asking Harry, his best friend, to be his boyfriend. Problem is - Harry has always been in love with Louis and so, this Valentine’s he’s gonna see his dreams come true, with a tiny bit of a twist, in order to watch the football team they have loved together since they were kids.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So here's a late Valentine's day au! Hop in for a wild one!
> 
> This is also a birthday gift for Lils! Syn is not sorry for putting Louis supporting Manchester United, that's why the McFly title for you!
> 
> (@lils this shit for you cuz i'm your niall telling you to get your shit together, or is2g luv u bb - your star)
> 
> So, for fic purposes, Louis supports Manchester United along with Harry, they are 20&22, but the fic happens in current days.
> 
> Thanks Sammie for being our awesome beta as always!
> 
> Here's a [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/stephvicente/playlist/4TbJU4lbL2VSCeTIyiuUmV) with the songs that inspired/mentioned in the fic.
> 
> Enjoy!

**Monday, February 13th**

"And that was Coldplay on this fine Monday morning, what a nice tune to start off the Valentine's week! And as we said at the beginning of the show, this week we'll be doing a round of prizes designed for couples activities. Stay tuned! Now, here's Maroon 5."

Harry was listening to the Breakfast Show as he swiped the floor of the bakery, the street outside still a bit dark and silent. That was his routine. Getting up early to come work at Susie's Sweets before his Uni classes in the afternoon. The boring chores before starting to bake the food was always filled with Nick's voice and his funny and clever comments and great selection of music.

"Valentine's day is just around the corner and we all know how going on a romantic date is all everyone is thinking about, right? Fifi, what are your plans for your date this year?" Nick spoke again after a few songs had played.

"Oh, nothing much, probably just gonna go wine and dine at home," Fiona answered.

"Ah, that sounds lovely! But you know, I bet there are some people that aren't quite the romantic type like you, am I right?"

"You're definitely right, Nick. Where are you going with this, though?"

"I'm going with something that no one is expecting! We're gonna do something crazy this week. The prizes we talked about in the beginning of the show, they aren't only going to be the typical Valentine's day thing. We're gonna please all kinds of people: the romantic ones, the Netflix and chill ones, the sports one..."

"Uh, that sounds interesting!"

"It is! And talking about the sports one, that's where we're gonna start with, so pay attention, dear listeners. We have something that will make our tweets blow up for sure."

"Damn Grimmy, you're making everyone curious, spill it out!"

"Alright, alright. So, here's what we have: we'll be giving away two tickets for the next Arsenal versus Manchester United match at the Emirates Stadium, which is happening this Saturday. A classic for the passionate football fans and lovers! I'm sure there are many couples out there, living their love through their team’s rivalry, so why not give them a chance to have a nice day, watching the teams they love play against each other?"

"That could end relationships, Nick! What if one of the teams beat the other?"

"It could happen, but what if it ends in a tie? It could be a win-win and a fun date!"

"I’m not that sure..."

"C'mon Fiona, it’s not everyone who likes to wine and dine! Some people have other passions instead of just becoming the drunk auntie at the parties!

"Watch out, Grimshaw, I can call this thing off right now!"

"No, no, you won’t, 'cause now I'm already receiving loads of tweets from fans wanting to know what they have to do to win this! And well, my dears, it is very simple. You just have to answer the question I'll say in a sec and then at 8 am, you have to be listening to me to reveal the key word you’ll need to say if we call you back! So here's the question: How many Premier League titles do Manchester United and Arsenal have combined? Uh, is that a tough one, Fifi? Are we going too strong?"

"For people who are not into footie, maybe, but for the die hard fans, it might be easy."

"I think so too! But we're gonna make it a little bit easier. We have options: A 33, B 35 or C 37. So, if you wanna enter this competition, you just need to guess the right number. If you think it's 33, text us ARSEMAN A followed by your and your girlfriend's or boyfriend's name and your ages to 81199; if you think it's 35, text ARSEMAN B followed by your and your girlfriend's or boyfriend's name and your ages to 81199, and if you if think 37, then text ARSEMAN C to 81199 followed by your and your girlfriend's or boyfriend's name and your ages to 81199 and those who get the right answer, we'll potentially call you, but you and your partner will only get the tickets if you answer the phone and if you answer with the word! You must be 18 or over to enter this competition, be dating someone and only one text will count per number and name entered. Don’t forget to listen to us at 8 o'clock this morning to get the word and answer your phone if we call you! Simple right? So, with the rules set, let's get back to the music! Here's Ed Sheeran with Shape of You."

Harry kept listening to the radio as he put the fresh cookies from the oven on top of the table. That was a nice contest. What wouldn't he give to watch a Manchester United match, against Arsenal even. He just wouldn't try and win this one because he had to keep working as the bakery was about to open – and also because he didn't have a girlfriend (which would actually never happen) and not even a boyfriend (which could happen, but, he had stopped looking for one a long time ago), so he couldn't fool the contest like that. If he could take a mate, then he knew exactly who to take with him, but, he was alright for now, only curious to know what the key word would be and who would win it.

The time passed by, the customers arriving and buying their usual pastries, Susie already at the bakery, helping him and being friendly and attentive to their morning customers.

When 8 o'clock approached, Harry heard Nick Grimshaw speak on the radio again.

"So, everybody ready for the word reveal? Lines are closed now and we'll start calling people after the next three songs."

"I think they are, Nick. And please, pick up the phone, people! If I could participate in this thing, I would be already clinging to my phone." Scott Mills was now broadcasting along with Nick.

"Be like Scott, and don't leave your phone! But first, let's give you our word. You will have to answer your phone saying: GOAL!"

"How original, Grimmy!"

"I know, right? So, wherever you are, on the bus, on the street, at home, at work, you must answer saying ‘goal’, because, well, football, of course... So, stay tuned because we'll be back in a few with the calls!"

Carly Rae Jepsen, Ellie Goulding and Ariana Grande played next and Nick came back on as Harry was putting a new batch of cupcakes on the display.

“And that was Ariana Grande with Into You, on the Breakfast Show on Radio 1. It’s 8:20 am on this fine 13th of February, Valentine’s day eve and here’s what most of our listeners have been waiting for! We’ve asked you earlier the number of Premier League titles Manchester United and Arsenal have combined to win a pair of tickets for you and your girlfriend or boyfriend to see the next classic match at the Emirates Stadium! If you texted ARSEMAN A, which was the number 33, you got it right and we could be calling you right now. So, who’s gonna be the lucky person to answer the phone correctly with ‘GOAL!’ next? We’re doing this right now, let’s call our first number!”

There was the sound of a phone ringing and on the third ring, someone picked it up, screaming “GOOOOAL!”

“Yees!” Scott and Nick cheered.

“Oh, wow! On the first try! Congratulations!! Who is it?” Grimshaw’s voice sounded completely overjoyed.

“It’s Louis!” At that Harry had to stop, because he knew that voice and he knew that name and there were probably a lot of people called Louis in London, but that voice, he could recognize it anywhere.

“Well, hello there, Louis! You just won a pair of tickets to see Arsenal and Manchester United! Are you excited, mate?”

“Oh, absolutely! I’m a massive Manchester United fan! Oh man, I can’t believe I got called first!”

“Lucky boy! And so, what’s the name of the person who you’re gonna take with you on this fun match date?”

Harry was possibly in shock. He had stopped in motion after hearing Louis speaking because one, what was Louis doing up so early? Two, Louis didn’t have a boyfriend. Harry would’ve known that, of course he would, they were best mates since they were 6 and 8 years old; and three, whose name would Louis say?

Harry’s heart was pounding so hard against his chest he thought he was about to have a heart attack. If Louis was dating someone again, Harry didn’t want to find out through the radio; he most likely wouldn’t want to know about it at all, because then he would have to suffer in silence one more time.

“It’s, erm… I…,” Louis was stuttering and Harry found that odd, and so did Nick Grimshaw.

“Uh, mate, you alright? You did know you’d need a date to win the tickets, right? You did put another name on your text,” Nick’s voice was concerned, “but if you don’t have one, then, well, we’ll have to call someone else and…”

“No!” Louis interrupted in a yell. “I do have someone, it’s just, we aren’t exactly dating.”

“Elaborate, Louis, please, because this is a Valentine’s day contest. You have to be dating the person! That wouldn’t be fair.”

“I haven’t asked yet, that’s the thing.” Harry could notice Louis’ voice was a bit nervous and Harry was starting to get nervous too. Who in the world would Louis be seeing to be at this level of relationship to try to win a Valentine’s day competition?

“Oooh, so you’re at that state that you want to make it official but you just don’t know how yet?” Scott teased.

“Kinda,” Louis was short.

“And you think you want to make it official through the radio? Is this person really worthy of these pair of tickets?” Nick sounded mused.

“Yeah, yeah, I mean, totally.” Harry didn’t think Louis sounded confident enough, but he managed to say that without his voice shaking.

“So Louis, who’s the lucky person that will not only get to see Arsenal and Manchester United facing each other, but will also possibly become your girlfriend… or boyfriend? I mean, that’s a good catch, to ask someone out like this on the radio. It will be hard to say no after this.”

“It’s, hm, his name is…” Oh boy, Harry was about to pass out, he couldn’t bear to hear what Louis would say. Susie was looking at him, worried eyes watching him from the till as she noticed that Harry had simply abandoned his cupcake duties. “Harry. Harry Styles.”

“What?!” Harry turned around, eyes almost popping out of his head, looking at Susie to see her with her mouth hanging open.

“Alright! So will Harry Styles be your boyfriend and go with you to the match? Wait wait, how will we know that he’s accepted it? Does he even know you entered this contest?”

“I think,” Louis cleared his throat, “he might be listening to the radio right now. He loves your show, listens to it every morning when he’s at work.”’

“He knew I was listening…” Harry said, voice barely leaving his mouth. That couldn’t be true. That couldn’t be happening.

“Oh, so did you just date-propose on live radio? And Harry, Harry Styles, are you listening? Are you accepting Louis to be your boyfriend? Oh my, this show just got a lot more interesting this morning!”

“I guess, I guess so…” Louis voice was trembling again.

“I need to know now if he accepted it or not! I have a mighty need and I think all of our listeners want to know too! And also you, of course! Oh my God, are you nervous, Louis?”

“Yes, I am. I really want the tickets!”

“And to date Harry Styles!” Scott added.

“Oh, yeah, hm, yeah, ‘course,” Louis cleared his voice again.

“Oh my…” Susie spoke, hand clutching at her apron, fond eyes looking at Harry. The customer at the till didn’t even mind about being ignored; she was looking eagerly at him too.

“So, how will it be? Because now we’re only giving away these tickets to you if we know that your boy accepted it. How about he tweets us? You both have twitter?” Nick asked excitedly.

“Yeah, we do, oh Christ…” Harry could picture Louis, possibly still in bed, nervously laughing.

“I know this doesn’t look romantic at all, but, I bet the whole internet must be freaking out right now already!”

“I... think… Yeah, maybe, that would work. I just don’t know if he’s gonna–”

“Oh lord, you’re so nervous!” Nick cut him off, laughing. “To be young and in love! Alright alright, so, Harry Styles, soon to be Louis’ boyfriend, will you tweet Louis and me @grimmers and the Breakfast Show @R1Breakfast saying if you will be Louis’ date and boyfriend? Oh my, I hope he’s not as terrified as you seem to be, mate! I hope he says yes, though. Is this a bit too much? You brought this upon yourself, I must say. But what wouldn't we do for love and a footie match, right?”

Harry only heard Louis’ laughter and fuck, that would be the death of him.

“Alright, hun, we’ve already spent too much time on the line with you, but we do need to know what he answers otherwise we’ll have to call someone else. So, Harry, if you’re listening, please tweet us. Louis, we’ll hold you on the line with our producers and we’ll see how it goes. Any last words? For Harry?”

“Oh, yes, I suppose. Hi, Harry, ma– dear, I– please, say yes! I’d love to go on this date with you!” Louis said and Harry felt his head spin. Louis just did not say that on the radio for possibly the whole city, maybe the whole country to hear.

“Aw, that’s cute! Ok, we’ll wait for Harry’s answer! Now, let’s listen to some good and old Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat and we’ll be right back.”

“Well, Harry, what are you going to do?” Susie’s voice caught his attention again.

Harry might’ve forgotten how to breathe and to make his brain work. What the hell just happened?

“Susie, he–  he asked me! On a date!” Harry shook his head multiple times. “On the radio!”

“Well, dear, are you going to say yes or no? I think we both know the answer, right?”

Harry gulped dryly. He knew what the answer was, he has always known. He just didn’t know that there would be a question to that answer. He and Louis were best friends, for more than 10 years now, but that was all that it was, at least for Louis. Harry never imagined that Louis would feel the same, that he has ever felt the same. And it seemed Louis thought they were in a place in their relationship/friendship that was worth asking Harry to be his date? His boyfriend? When did that happen? Sure, they lived together at their Uni flat, they talked to each other almost 24/7, they always went back home together, would travel or spend the holidays with each other’s families, but there was never more than that. Had he lost any signs? Was he so blind because of his own feelings that he missed when Louis started having some for him?

It didn’t matter. Louis was asking Harry out, was asking Harry to go to a Manchester United match with him, as his date, as his boyfriend. Of course he would say yes.

He fetched his phone from his pocket, ignoring the apparently wave of text messages he was receiving. He opened the Twitter app, quickly composing a message.

 _Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles_ _  
_ _@Grimmers @R1Breakfast @Louis_Tomlinson Yes! Of course yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

He breathed heavily, holding his phone against his chest for a second, closing his eyes.

He had done it and there was no going back. His lips turned up in an involuntary smile and he could hear the “aws” coming from both Susie and the customer.

“No, please, stop it!” He looked up at them again, shyly, feeling his cheeks blush.

“Well done, love!” Susie was smiling back at him.

“That was the weirdest and most romantic thing I’ve ever witnessed,” the lady spoke, smiling too.

“I think I’m gonna…” He indicated with his thumb to the back door that lead to the kitchen, not really sure what to do, but knowing that he needed to take a break to let it all sink in.

“Of course, Harry. I’ll be fine here on the front alone for a few minutes. Sorry, miss, I’ll get back to your order now!” Susie winked at him and quickly turned to the woman.

Harry went to the back and sat on the bench near the big table in the middle of the kitchen. He breathed heavily one last time before he looked at his phone again. His Twitter notifications were blowing up.

He clicked on the mentions to see loads of people he had never seen before congratulate him, saying how cute that was, wishing them to enjoy the match, and at the bottom, right after Louis’ last tweet to him last night, pestering him about how he could not choose the movie for their movie night again, he saw Nick Grimshaw’s tweet.

 _nick grimshaw @grimmers  
_ _@Harry_Styles @Louis_Tomlinson @R1Breakfast Yay Styles! Louis is a lucky man! Enjoy the tickets!_

Right above, there was another one, as a mention to his tweet.

 _Niall Horan @NiallOfficial  
_ _YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI *plays my longest yeah boy ever video on repeat* FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

Harry chuckled, scrolling up to his mentions, reading them again and realizing that Nick Grimshaw had actually followed him. He had to contain the fanboy in him not to freak out because he actually noticed there was also a notification for his DMs. His heart skipped a beat, imagining Nick Grimshaw not only tweeting and following him but also talking to him through Direct Messages. It was barely 9 am and Harry was already winning in life today.

He opened the DM tab to see that it wasn’t Nick’s message that was at the top. It was actually Louis’. He frowned because, well, Louis could’ve called him, or texted him or even tweeted him back, or he could’ve come running from their flat to the bakery to talk to Harry in person, after all, he had asked Harry to be his boyfriend on live radio, so there wasn’t much Louis could do that wouldn’t impress him again. But a DM, that was just too weird, even for Louis.

 _Louis Tomlinson  
_ _I can’t believe you did that! Thank you! I’ll explain it all later! I owe you so much, you’re the best mate a guy could have!_

Harry furrowed his brows reading that. What the hell was Louis talking about?

 

*

 

Right now, Louis didn’t know if he wanted to hug Niall or kick him in the arse.

Hug him, because if Niall hadn’t called him at dawn (ok, it was 7:30 am, which was considered dawn to Louis anyway) to warn him about Nick Grimshaw’s contest, he wouldn’t now be the owner of a pair of tickets to see his team’s match.

But kick his arse because now he was banging on his door incessantly and calling his name to open it when Louis was freaking out a bit because he had just spoken on live radio, lied to a big company and Niall was already making a big fuss out of it, and he didn’t know why.

“Are you serious?” Niall almost jumped at him when he opened the door. “I thought you weren’t going to do it!”

“Nialler, calm down, Jesus fuck. It was the first thing I thought, I don’t– ” Louis tried to untangle himself from Niall’s arms around him.

“How can I calm the fuck down when you just did that,” Niall almost didn’t let Louis talk, cutting him off. He let go of him, but holding his face and smacking his lips on Louis’ forehead. “You did that, Tommo! I mean, I thought it was gonna happen someday, but not like this, and oh my God,” Niall took a step away from Louis and walked to the couch.

“What are you even talking about?” Louis knitted his brows, closing the door and going to the couch too.

“You asking Harry out, of course!” Niall exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

“And why did you think that would happen someday? Niall, Haz is my best mate, what the hell!” Louis shook his head, confusion all over his face.

“What?! You did ask Harry out on the radio, you said you wanted him to be your boyfriend! Did you fall and hit your head and forgot what happened just minutes ago?”

“No?” Louis crossed his arms over his chest. “I asked Harry out because I wanted to win the tickets! Niall, keep up, you were the one who told me about it and said that I just needed to find someone to go with me if I won! Harry was the first person I thought, because you know, The Red Devils were our first obsession together since we were kids. I just had to add a little lie.” He shrugged unapologetically.

“What?! Louis, I can’t unders– you did all that just because you wanted the tickets? Didn’t you think about Harry? You knew he was listening!”

“Of course I knew he was, that’s why I was almost sure he wouldn’t say no and would play along, which he did. Seriously, best mate ever!”

“Yes, best mate, yeah, of course,” Louis could sense a bit of sarcasm on Niall’s tone but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “You never thought that for a second he could say no?”

“Why would he say no? It’s Manchester United we are talking about. I literally got two tickets to go see the match and I’m obviously taking him, I wasn’t lying about that. I really want to go with him, it’s been awhile since we went to a stadium together and saw them playing. The last time, I think it was Robin who took us, back when we were still at home!”

Niall was now resting his elbow on the backrest of the couch, supporting his head with his hand, pointer finger tapping on his temple. “That’s it?”

“What? Of course it is! I don’t understand what you’re on about, Nialler.” Louis was wary of Niall’s behavior. Why was he now angry that Louis had done that? He should be happy that he was clever enough to get those damn tickets. Golden tickets, beautiful and precious tickets.

“Louis!” There was a knock on the door and Louis got up from the couch and went to answer it. He was greeted by a very smiley Liam and Zayn.

“You sneaky bastard!” Liam said, stepping inside the flat.

“Better late than ever, Tommo,” Zayn passed by him, patting him on the shoulder.

Louis turned around, putting his hands on his hips. “What is everyone talking about?!”

Liam and Zayn looked back at him after greeting Niall.

“You and Harry…?” Liam replied with a confused tone.

“He fake proposed.” Niall answered quickly showing almost no emotion.

“What? Why? I thought you had finally come to your senses and realized that–” Zayn spoke, looking around the room in confusion.

“What the fuck, lads?” Louis cut him off. “You think me and Harry? You think we…” He was catching up with what they were implying and why would they think that?

He and Harry had been friends, best friends for as long as Louis could remember, everybody knew that. They were almost always known as _LouisAndHarry_ / _HarryAndLouis,_ call it however you liked it _–_ where one was, the other was probably there too; that’s what happened when Louis moved to London to attend Uni and two years later Harry followed him, no doubt that they would move in together once in the big city. They had been each other’s rock when both of them figured out they liked boys, when they had their first boyfriends and breakups. They were always taking care of each other when one had too much to drink at a party and the hangover was just too much to bear, or when one would have a difficult exam and needed someone to help him revise.

That’s who they were since the beginning, since they found themselves playing footie on a field near Louis’ house – the new kid next door was there, that chubby rosy cheeked curly little boy playing all by himself and Louis called him to play because the boy had a Manchester United jersey on. That’s how it all started.

There wasn’t possibly any reason why any of their friends –  their closest friends –  would think that Louis would ask Harry out on a romantic date, would want Harry to be his real boyfriend. They had never been like that.

“I can’t believe you are this dumb,” Liam puffed and rolled his eyes, flopping down on the other end of the couch.

“Why am I dumb? Excuse me, from the 4 of us, who just got tickets to see Manchester United kick Arsenal’s arse?” Louis was exasperated.

“No, you’re just too fucking dumb about yours and Harry’s feel–” Zayn was interrupted by a loud bang of the door against the wall.

“Louis, did you really mean–” Harry stopped mid sentence, entering the flat, taking in the room to see the other four people in there. “Oh, everybody’s here.”

Louis looked from Harry to the other three. Their friends were all looking concerned at Louis and he gulped, understanding what Harry was going to ask.

“Can I explain myself?” Louis realized how he was actually dreading telling the truth to Harry. He knew Harry would do anything for him without even questioning why – that’s what happened that morning. And that was what Louis loved the most about their friendship. They trusted each other with such ease; there wasn’t anyone else Louis would actually put his hand on fire for, would catch a grenade for besides Harry and he knew that for the other boy it was the same. Although, somehow he knew that he had gone a little bit too far this time, without even asking Harry if that would be ok.

“You sure should, because I have no clue what’s going on. Lou, you asked me on a date, you said you wanted to date me!” Harry’s eyes were a shiny green, his hair being held by a scarf, cheeks still with a bit of flour. He was holding the strap of his rucksack nervously.

“I did,” Louis gulped again, “ask you on a date to see the match with me. I did that. I just had to squeeze a little lie in there to get the tickets. You were listening, right? You knew what the contest was about. I did want to see the match with you, I do! But if I had said that we were just mates, they would never give the tickets, and hell, what were the chances of them calling me anyway, right? And I knew you’d hop along and help me.”

Louis could see the moment Harry’s expression turned from a confused excitement to disappointment, maybe.

“Oh, I see,” Harry spoke, licking his lips nervously. He breathed heavily and turned around, closing the door. When he turned back again, he walked in front of Louis without looking at him. He sat on the couch between Liam and Niall. Zayn was now sitting on the arm of the couch next to Niall.

Louis furrowed his brows, not understanding Harry’s reaction. He walked to the middle of the small living room.

“Hazza, I– are you alright? I mean, I’m sorry I didn’t warn you I was going to do this, I didn’t really think it through. When Niall called me about the contest, I already thought of going to the match with you, and I put your name in the text too, but I wasn’t really expecting to receive the call. And when Nick said that I had to have a date otherwise they would call another person, I couldn’t let those tickets get away from me, so I just improvised. You know, pulled the Tommo way, hoping you’d come to the rescue. Sorry if that made you uncomfortable.”

Harry was looking down at his hands on his lap. The others were dead silent, looking from Louis to Harry.

“No, Lou, it’s… it’s ok, I–” Harry looked up. “Yeah, of course, you wouldn’t want to lose those tickets, right? When I noticed it was you who got called, I was happy but confused to know who you’d say was going to be your date. I just didn’t think it would be me.” Harry sighed. Louis saw Niall put one arm around Harry’s shoulder and squeeze him.

“And who else would it be? These losers here don’t deserve to watch the Reds. Niall is with Derby, Liam with West Bromwich and Zyam with Bradford… please.” Louis said, mockingly.

The three of them flipped him off. He knew he had touched a sacred topic, but it was the truth. Their friends didn’t understand why Manchester United was so important to them.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Harry spoke again, his voice a bit more cheerful, but Louis could still sense that Harry wasn’t completely alright with it. Damn, he might have fucked up with Harry this time. “But now everybody thinks we’re dating. I said yes to Nick Grimshaw, Louis!”

Niall coughed while Harry was speaking and Louis only squinted his eyes at him.

“Well. That’s a technicality. In their eyes, we’re dating, yes. But we’re not, we’re just gonna go to the match together and that’s it. Nobody will check on us to see if we’re actually dating or not.”

“Oh, but they are already,” Niall said, taking his phone from his pocket.

“What?!” Both Louis and Harry looked at Niall.

“Did you both listen to the show after Louis hung up? Did you actually check your twitter? Bloody hell, was I the only one who spent minutes on the Louis and Harry trending topic?”

“We were trending?!” Harry asked astonished.

“I turned my phone off after I talked to the BBC Radio 1 producers, because the notifications were annoying me, so I just decided to have breakfast and take a shower as I couldn’t go back to sleep anymore. Then, you know, I played some FIFA to get in the mood and was about to get ready to go to class when you all showed up,” Louis explained, shrugging.

“That’s why you didn’t pick up your phone? Zayn and I were desperate to talk to you, arsehole.” Liam shot an angry look at him.

“Honestly, you guys are the worst,” Niall shook his head. “Nick said that he did a bit of stalking on your twitters and he was saying how cute you both are, tweeting each other all the time and he would die to know what the tweets would be like now that you’re officially dating.”

Louis felt his brain freeze at that. Oh shit.

“I got some weird notifications on a tweet you guys had replied to me on, someone said ‘ah, they are so lovely, but who’s that hottie brunette?’” Zayn commented, smugly.

“People called me the cutie blondie, but one asked if I would still be third wheeling your dates. What a weirdo.” Niall said without taking his eyes off his phone.

“Someone said I looked like a puppy and the token straight friend. How do these comments even relate? I mean, what type of comment is that anyway?" Liam added, a little outraged.

“And you guys haven’t even tweeted each other. I mean, Louis hasn’t tweeted Harry back. Imagine when it happens, you guys are gonna break the internet!” Niall looked back at them, sneaky smile on his face.

“Do we have to? I mean, we don’t need to engage, right? Harry said yes, we are dating for them, the tickets are ours, it’s all set.”

“Grimmy said he would make a follow up on you guys, he wants to see how the boyfriend life is going for you now!” Niall rolled his eyes, locking his phone. “And you can’t simply disappear from the internet, it will look suspicious, since you’re always online tweeting each other.”

Louis looked from Niall to Harry. Harry was weirdly quiet while the others were talking, but not looking away from Louis.

“Shit,” Louis murmured, fingers nervously pulling at his fringe.

“Guess you’ll have to pretend to be a couple on the internet for awhile if you don’t want to lose these tickets, lads,”  Zayn bit his lip, looking from Louis to Harry.

“I mean, it won’t be hard, right? They all found you all loved up just by your normal tweets,” Liam shrugged.

“Oh God, no, this is… Wrong! We can’t, it can’t…” Harry finally spoke, shaking his head multiple times. All of them looked at him. Louis could see the desperation in his eyes. Damn, what had Louis done? He didn’t know that would affect Harry that much.

“Sorry for dragging you into this, Haz. I didn’t think it would turn out this way, like, why are people obsessed about us anyway?”

“Dude, you practically declared your love to Harry on live radio, that takes some balls for people to do. Of course people would be interested in your story!” Niall lifted his arms up and down, “I think you can’t escape this and Liam’s right. It won’t be too hard for you, you know, to look like a couple. It won’t hurt, will it? A few tweets, maybe some photos? You already do it all the time.”

“Niall, please, no.” Harry said, squinting his eyes at him. Louis could see Niall mouthing him a ”sorry”.

“I guess Niall’s right, H,” he looked back at Harry, a little hesitantly. “It doesn’t have to be much, I mean, it doesn’t have to be weird, it won’t be weird, right? And we can keep this up only until the match, so they don’t suspect anything. Then after we can go back to our normal selves. Please, Harry. I promise I won’t ask you anything else after this. I mean, I’ll probably ask you some favors as always, but I won’t do anything before consulting you! It’s the Red Devils we are talking about. It’s worth it, innit?”

Harry was quiet watching Louis speak. Louis was hopeful, eyes almost begging Harry to do this for him, just this once.

The curly boy closed his eyes for a few seconds, inhaling deeply. He drummed his fingers on his tights, teeth biting down on his lip before he opened his eyes again.

“Alright,” he simply said, the troubled expression leaving his face to give room to a smile on the corner of his lips. “Ok, cool, I think I can do it. Yeah, for Manchester United, of course.”

He looked up at Louis, intensive green eyes staring at him. Louis breathed relieved.

Goddam it, Louis had the best best mate he could’ve asked for. He could even kiss him right now. No, probably not. It would be completely weird, considering what was happening at the moment.

“So, now you’re official fake boyfriends, is that it?” Liam asked, shaking his head and laughing faintly.

“Are we, Harry?” Louis quirked a brow at him.

“Yes, we are. Fake boyfriends.” Harry nodded, winking at him.

“Ok, can I finally celebrate it? Shit, no, you have to make it official first on the web. C’mon Louis, tweet Harry, post a picture, do it for the Vine, I don’t know! Oh, let me take the picture for you guys!” Niall was standing up again, catching Harry by the arm and dragging him to where Louis was.

“Nialler!” Harry protested, chuckling as he stopped in front of Louis, making him laugh too.

“Yes, like this, please, keep on laughing. Oh my, you already look so cute. I’m so proud of my dads,” Niall got his phone in position, almost in front of their faces. All of the boys laughed together.

“God, do we already have a fake adopted child? Have things moved too fast, Harold?” Louis put a hand on Harry’s shoulder, bringing him to stand beside him, his arm now enveloping him in a half hug.

“I don’t know, guess so,” Harry rested his head on Louis’ shoulder, almost hiding his face on Louis’ neck.

“Thanks Curly,” Louis said very low just for Harry to hear, “this is gonna be fun, don’t worry.”

“Yeah, you bet,” Harry answered barely audible, nuzzling his cheeks against Louis’ shoulder.

Louis shook his head and looked back at Niall, who had the most stupid smirk on his face. “C’mon, Horan, just do it.”

“You think I haven’t already taken a hundred pictures of you all cuddly like this? Of course I did, who do you take me for? Now, I want the official one. Do something funny, Lou.”

Louis complied, raising his other arm and pointing his finger to Harry’s face, opening his mouth in an O.

“Cute!” Liam shouted from the couch as Zayn whistled.

Both Harry and Louis flipped them off as Niall shouted a “check your messages!”

Harry got his phone from his pocket and opened it, checking their groupchat. Louis looked down at the device to see the picture there. Indeed, he and Harry looked cute like that. But that was just like any other photo they had already taken, nothing more. He couldn’t understand how people would think that was any different from anything they had posted before.

“I think you have to post this one, Lou,” Harry gave his phone to Louis. “I mean, you have to reply to me,” Harry grinned.

“Oh, yeah.” He got the phone in his hand and went to the Twitter app, logging off from Harry’s account and signing in with his.

He quickly composed a tweet with the photo attached to it.

 _Louis Tomlinson @Louis_Tomlinson  
_ _He actually said yes! @Harry_Styles Thanks @grimmers @R1Breakfast_

As the tweet was sent, he heard Niall’s phone going off.

“Aw, how romantic!” Niall exclaimed, looking up from his phone to them again.

“You have my notifications on?” Louis asked, intrigued.

“Of course, I do! I keep tab of what my friends are up to, you twat! And I’m not turning it off now, especially now. Oh boy, this is gonna be fun.”

Louis only shook his head. Harry was laughing slightly, still with his head resting on his shoulder, as Zayn slapped Niall on the head and Liam took the phone from his hand to see the tweet.

He took a deep breath. Right, he and Harry were doing that. It was something silly and it wouldn’t be something hard, something that would take too much effort. They already spent most of the time together, so they would just continue to do that, but only trying to give the impression that they were dating instead of being just friends. Instead of tweeting “hanging out with the curly mate tonight *winky emoji*”, maybe Louis could say “date night with the curly *heart emoji*”. Yeah, that would do. See, he could do that. So could Harry.

They were going to be fine and in a few days they would be watching Manchester United playing, hopefully winning over Arsenal and all would be normal again.

 

*

 

Being secretly in love with your best friend for years was not something easy. Especially when you had just agreed to pretend that you are in love and in a relationship. Harry thought he would have a heart attack when Louis and their friends suggested they would have to do it, you know, for the sake of Louis not losing those damn tickets (no, they were not damned, Manchester United tickets would never be damned. If he thought about it, Louis had good intentions, but the means to get them were the worst possible – for Harry, at least).

Harry most likely wanted to kill Louis for starting this, for making Harry have hopes that he was in love with him too, asking Harry to be his boyfriend on live radio, only to find out that he was actually fooling everyone, including Harry.

He didn’t want to participate in that, at all, because it was wrong, they were lying and deceiving everyone (the whole internet basically, who was buying that, and the BBC Radio 1, and that was the worst), and because Louis had played him like a love fool. He almost wanted to say right there that Louis shouldn’t play with his heart so easily. But that was only for a moment.

Because, if Louis could do that, Harry could play the game too – and play to win. He could take advantage of the situation, of course. The several years Harry had spent accidentally giving hints that he was hopelessly in love with Louis would end right there, with him being able to act like the fool in love that he was without being too careful. Would he get hurt in the end? Probably. Though, what was more hurtful than wanting someone that you knew (more than ever now) didn’t feel the same about you? But at least, it could be fun to embarrass Louis at any given opportunity he had for the next few days.

He would have 5 days until the game to pretend to be Louis’ boyfriend, to shower him with the loveliest things he had always dreamed of doing with him, and who knew, maybe Louis would realize that they weren’t just best friends. Yeah, right, that was off the table, Harry knew, but still, he could dream. That wouldn’t stop him from pretending to be the most lovely boyfriend on the planet at the moment, though.

That’s what happened that night after both of them came back from their afternoon lectures. Harry decided to take one for the team and start Project Fake Boyfriends for the whole internet to see. He sat down on the couch with Louis, pestering him about how they would have to practice some things to act like they were a couple: first, the hand holding thing. Harry entwined his fingers with Louis’, snapping a picture of that and posting it on his Instagram (which people had already found, making him gain more and more followers by the hour, along with his Twitter) with a cheesy caption that made Louis kick his shins and comment on it with a heart emoji.

Although he seemed to be all loved up online, in real life Louis wasn’t being quite the romantic – he had tried to untangle their hands many times (“ _Harold, it’s just holding hands, there isn’t much about that that could go wrong._ ”) but Harry insisted they should just keep their hands like that for some time while watching telly (“ _Lou, we’re probably going to walk hand in hand on campus, you saw how people already knew about us. If we just don’t know how to do it, it will definitely look fake. We need to get used to each other’s hands._ ”).

Then, after too much bickering, came the kisses on the cheeks (“ _That we already do, Haz, nothing new here to practice._ ” “ _Yeah, but we now have to give some occasional ones, like this,”_ Harry kissed Louis’ cheek, “ _for no reason at all, and not only one once in awhile_.” “ _Fine,_ ” Louis kissed him too, “ _you win._ ”).

And lastly, a peck on the lips.

“You alright with that?” Louis asked, “I mean, the kisses on the cheeks are something friendly to do, but I think if we really want to convince people, we should…”

“No, yeah, you’re right,” Harry turned to face Louis better, “no problem with that. It’s not like we haven’t drunkenly done that too,” he smirked at him, wiggling his brows.

“That’s true,” Louis laughed, “but being sober is a whole other thing,” he quirked one brow at him.

“Not much different,” Harry put one hand on Louis’ face, not waiting for Louis to say anything else and kissing him very quickly on the lips. Yeah, they had drunkenly done that before, Harry remembered it very well, but he had lied. It was different, fuck. Kissing Louis because he wanted to and could now was very, very different and very, very welcomed.

“Damn, Styles, you’re not that slow when it comes to kissing,” Louis pulled away from Harry, a smile on the corner of his lips.

“You gotta be prepared, I won’t warn you before I do it in public,” Harry shrugged, thinking how now he would definitely kiss Louis in front of people. Dream coming fucking true.

“Then so should you,” Louis got closer to him again, sealing their lips once again, briefly.

It wasn’t supposed to give Harry the jitters, but it did, because it was Louis kissing him, even if was just for pretend. He thought for a second that he should just drop it, because how was he supposed to keep himself together if they were going to do that all the time? And also, it could become awkward, but Louis seemed to be fine with it, engaging with him, so there wasn’t really a reason for him to stop it. It was only for a few days anyway. Now he would have to deal with it and keep it in his pants.

“Well, H,” Louis yawned at the end of a Friends’ episode they were watching. “I’m going to bed, you know, early class tomorrow. As much as I’d love to keep seeing Chandler and Monica hide from everyone that they’ve been shagging, I gotta have my beauty sleep early.” He patted Harry on his thigh and got up from the couch.

“I have to get up at 4 in the morning everyday, please. You waking up early twice a week isn’t a big sacrifice, Lou.” Harry rolled his eyes.

“That’s because you’re used to it,” Louis stopped behind the couch, just beside Harry’s head, “you’re a baker, Harreh.”

“You have been studying in the morning for almost 4 years, how the hell have you not gotten used to it?” Harry turned his head to look at Louis.

“You know me, not an early bird. You should be the one used to it already,” he laughed. “Alright, babycakes, I’m going now, goodnight.” Harry wasn’t expecting the kiss on his cheek and he could feel himself blushing. Damn it Louis, he couldn’t do that to him. And he wouldn’t leave it like that either.

“Just a kiss on the cheek, Lou? C’mon, we’re past that, gimme a proper goodnight kiss, sweetcheeks.” Harry made his best pouty lips and puppy eyes and Louis only closed his eyes shaking his head before pecking Harry on the lips.

“I didn’t know I got meself a clingy fake boyfriend,” Louis spoke teasingly, as he walked backwards to his room.

Harry smiled at him smugly. “Better get used to it for the next few days. I’m not gonna be a half-arsed fake boyfriend. I’m going on full mode.”

“That’s why you’re my best friend,” Louis winked at him before reaching to his door, “thanks Haz, really, for doing this. It will totally be worth the tickets.”

Harry breathed deeply, “yeah, of course,” he ran his hand through his hair, a bit nervously “all for you and the tickets.”

“For us, we’re gonna see the game together! Fuck, Hazza, I’m so excited!” Louis smiled brightly at him. “Right, I’m off to bed now. Goodnight!”

Harry only nodded at him, watching him close the door. Yes, he was excited about that too.

 

**Tuesday, February 14th**

 

“That was Craig David and Blonde, to wake up some lovers’ hearts today! How are we doing on this cold but beautiful Valentine’s morning, Fifi?” Nick Grimshaw’s voice invaded the bakery in the early morning.

“Good Nick! I woke up today and could feel that the love was in the air already.”

“Oh, it definitely was! And you know where else it was? On the web!”

“Yeah, some people are really early lovebirds to declare their love on the internet.”

“Actually, this thing I saw has been on the web since last night. I’m guessing two lovebirds had a very great night!” Nick had a teasing tone.

“What are you talking about Nick?”

“Well, you know me Fiona, always nosing into other people’s business and I’m not one to back down from my words, so I did do a little bit of snooping on our newest Valentines, Louis and Harry, from yesterday, you remember right?” Harry’s heart skipped a bit and he almost dropped the tray with cupcakes he was carrying. Susie looked at him with a smug smile.

“Oh no, Nick! Leave the boys be, it’s none of our business!” Fiona interjected, laughing.

“Of course it is, Fifi. I feel like I’m their cupid, Fairy Godfather, the best man of their relationship, whatever, the one who brought them together! It’s not my fault Louis asked Harry out on my show and it’s not my fault I’m a curious twat and happened to follow both of them on Twitter and Instagram.”

“For God’s sake, Grimshaw! You are one old gossipy lady,” Fiona laughed again.

“I sure am! I do love to talk about other’s life, and so do you, don’t pretend otherwise. I know you are dying to know what I saw on their social medias.”

“You got me there, Nick. Spit it out already, will you?”

“Will do! Oh my Fifi, I saw the cutest thing. Harry posted this photo of them holding hands with the caption “two is better than one” and the two guys with a heart emoji. Just lovely! And Louis tweeted him goodnight and apparently they have cute pet names for each other, babycakes and sweetcheeks! I almost died of diabetes! I did some scrolling and they seem to be friends for so long, that’s cute that they finally got it right! I’m happy they got the tickets too!”

“Aw, that’s lovely! Happy to see two young boys so in love! But now, enough with the gossip time, Grimshaw, we have business and more prizes to give!”

“Right, right! But don’t think I will forget about these two so easily, so expect more updates on them. Now, I hope everybody will be tuned in at 8 o'clock waiting for today’s word reveal to win a romantic tour on river Thames and the London Eye! It’s almost time, but first let’s get back to our Valentine’s playlist. Here’s Hailee Steinfeld with Starving.”

Harry was again dumbstruck listening to what Nick was saying. Not only was Nick really spying on their social networks, he also thought Harry and Louis were actually dating and was happy that they had finally gotten together.

It seemed that everybody thought that – Susie had arrived at the bakery enveloping Harry in a warm hug saying how happy she was to finally see he and Louis together officially (yes, she also followed them on Twitter and Facebook); Harry’s mother and Gemma’s texts were a mix of happiness, surprise and disappointment for him not telling them that they were actually seeing each other before.

The only person who seemed oblivious to all of that was Louis, who kept doing his part as fake boyfriend without even having a clue of Harry’s very much real feelings for him.

But that wasn’t actually worrying Harry, because he was more interested in seizing this opportunity. This was about them having a little bit of fun together, after all; others be damned if they actually thought they were dating for real.

Harry kept listening to the Breakfast Show while serving the customers to hear another couple win the contest and also Nick tell them that he would keep tab on their social media life too. Then, Clara Amfo came on with the Live Lounge.

His shift had been a lot busier that Tuesday since more people were coming to buy sweets and pastries for their valentines that not even the music was helping. Harry was so tired he was debating with himself if he should go straight to his afternoon lecture or maybe not go at all and get back to his dorm to rest.

He was putting his last batch of chocolate croissants in the oven when Susie called him from the front.

“Harry, dear, there’s someone here to see you!”

Harry frowned since he wasn’t expecting anyone and it was almost the end of his shift. He checked his phone to see if anyone had left him a message saying their were coming over, but there was nothing. He then cleaned his hands on his apron and headed to the front counter.

He stopped midway when he saw Susie pinching Louis’ cheeks, Louis laughing with crinkled eyes.

“Oh dear, you boys are the cutest boyfriends I’ve ever seen,” Susie kissed Louis on the cheek and Harry could notice how embarrassed he was.

“Lou, what are you doing here?” Harry walked to the counter, smiling surprised at him.

“You came here to surprise him?” Susie looked from Louis to Harry, “On Valentine’s day? Oh my, when I thought romance was dead,” she shook her head, fond smile on her face.

“Oh, I– yeah, I mean, I just thought it would be nice to come here...” Louis was looking a little desperately at Harry and Harry thought that maybe it didn’t even cross Louis’ mind that he was doing a romantic gesture. Louis had showed up at the bakery unannounced many times before, so it wasn’t something unusual for them, but now, it had a different meaning, it seemed. Especially today. “After my class,” Louis continued, “so I could pick up Harry and take him for lunch,” Louis winked at Harry, leaving him to bashfully try to hold in a smile, without knowing what to say before he stepped outside the counter to meet Louis on the other side.

“Lou, that’s sweet, aw,” Harry embraced him and he knew Susie was looking at them so he couldn’t miss the opportunity, quickly pecking Louis on the lips.

“I thought I’d never see this in front of me,” Susie commented and Harry looked from Louis’ a little startled expression to see her clutching her hand against her heart, “it took you boys long enough.”

“Er, yeah,” Louis cleared his throat, “it takes some people more than others to realise that love is in front of them, I guess,” he kissed Harry on the cheek and it made Harry’s heart hurt and his cheeks flush at the same time, because he knew Louis didn’t really mean that. It was actually a sweet gesture and Harry still needed to get used to Louis’ demonstrations of affection like that in public.

“You’ve got a proper romantic on your hands, Harry, and here I was thinking you were the only one in lo–”

Harry understood what she was about to say and quickly interrupted. “Yeah, yeah, this one is full of surprises, right? Starting with yesterday, now this,” he took Louis’ hand in his, squeezing it tightly.

“Sweet, sweet boys! I don’t wanna keep you from going on your romantic date! You can leave now Harry, Genny will arrive in a few minutes. Everything is set at the kitchen, right?” Susie asked and Harry nodded. “Great! So you can get your stuff and go have fun!” She winked at them, paying attention to the till again.

“I’ll be right back,” Harry said to Louis and noticed Susie quickly looking at them. Harry kissed Louis’ cheek again. Louis only giggled and stood where he was, waiting for Harry to come back.

He took off his apron and went to the staff room to get his bag, put on his coat and then left, waving goodbye to Susie and approaching Louis, who was giving him his hand to hold.

That was a scenario he had imagined so many times in his head he had to contain himself from smiling wider when he got Louis’ hands in his again.

“Can we just do something before we leave?” Harry asked, getting his phone from his pocket.

“What are you up to, Hazza?” Louis observed him unlock it.

“Can’t let the world not know that my boyfriend came to surprise me at work,” he smirked at Louis, positioning his phone in front of them with the camera on. “Smile, Lou,” he got his head closer to Louis’, smiling real big for the camera as Louis smiled too and then clicked on the circle button to take the picture.

“Your mums will freak out, you look too cute together,” Susie commented. Both boys giggled as they looked down at Harry’s phone to see Harry compose a tweet.

 _Harry Styles @Harry_Styles  
_ _Look who came visit me at work! Best Valentine’s day surprise ever! @Louis_Tomlinson_

Harry pocketed his phone and waved goodbye to Susie again, leading Louis to the bakery’s door.

“Jesus fuck,” Louis said as soon as they stepped outside, “ok, I was not prepared for that,” he nervously laughed, “I should’ve thought it through better, I didn’t even make a connection that it's Valentine’s day and we are boyfriends in everyone’s eyes now. I just thought of inviting you to have lunch with me because I was starving when the class finished and I knew your shift was almost over. I didn’t think Susie would be so excited about us.”

“She’s excited about everything, mind ya,” Harry tried to change the direction of the conversation, afraid Louis would ask what Susie was about to say when Harry interrupted her.

“Everyone seems to be, right? I mean, updating the Facebook status was clearly the worst thing ever, ‘cause now everyone literally knows and imagine my surprise when I woke up today with tons of messages from mum and the girls,” Louis chuckled, squeezing Harry’s hand.

“Gemma and mum sent me some too. There’s no escape, Lou, they are probably now organising our wedding,” Harry joked.

“Oh God, no, please,” Louis rolled his eyes, “I’m now imagining how mad they will be when we tell them the truth later. They will want to kill us for nearly giving them heart attacks.”

Harry chuckled and only shrugged because yeah, it would be a mess to tell their families that they were only pretending, but it would be worse for him because Gemma would literally make his life a living hell for putting himself in the position that he is now. Oh well, at the end of the day it was his decision, his sister couldn’t do anything.

They kept walking, still holding hands, bodies close to each other due to the cold wind, heading to the burger place near the bakery. Before entering the place, Louis stopped Harry for a second by the door.

“Haz, just tell me if this gets weird, ok?” Louis looked at him with a concerned expression. “I mean, there were never weird or awkward moments between us, but, I don’t know. If you feel uncomfortable, please, we can call it off. Our friendship is more important than getting weird with each other because of tickets to see Manchester United,” Louis tilted his head to Harry, giving him a lopsided smile.

Harry stopped a second to breathe deeply and look Louis in the eyes. It wasn’t going to be weird, he just wanted to enjoy being Louis’ fake boyfriend while he could – and in the meanwhile, embarrass him, showering him with the cheesiest things. He knew where to draw the line, because he had been in love with Louis for too long now and it had never been weird. Their friendship came before anything, and it wouldn’t be different now.

“Lou, please no, it’s not uncomfortable and it won’t be either, it’s ok,” he smiled sweetly at him. “This is us and we do crazy shit together sometimes, and this is just one of them. Anything is worth to see Manchester United, because if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t even be here right now.”

“You’re right,” Louis squeezed Harry’s hand one more time, “cool cool cool, then. But please do tell me if anything is not okay for you.”

“Will do, Lou,” Harry chuckled, “if it made me uncomfortable, I wouldn’t do this,” he then quickly pecked Louis on the lips and he felt Louis freeze for a moment. “You’ll tell me if it also gets uncomfortable for you,” he looked back at Louis to see his blue eyes shining.

Louis shook his head, clearing his throat, “Not uncomfortable at all. Just need to get used to the PDA,” he laughed, “now, let’s get inside. It’s freezing and I’m starving.” He pulled Harry by the hand, making both of them walk inside the restaurant to have lunch.

 

*

 

Louis arrived home that evening wanting nothing more than just lie in bed for the next year. Tuesdays and Thursdays were the most tiring days when he had classes in the morning and his volunteering with the kid’s theater group in the afternoon. At least today he had Harry’s company at lunch.

He thought it would be weird to act as a couple for the outside world, but he was actually fine doing that. He and Harry had always been close, so with the little practice they had done the night before, at least they didn’t screw anything up and nobody thought they were acting differently around each other. Although people did ask Louis if the PDA was a given, since they’d become official. So apparently that was what people actually thought, that he and Harry were hooking up secretly at their dorm and decided to do it properly now. Just why, he didn’t know.

That made Louis think that maybe the sweet gestures, hand holding, small kisses here and there wouldn’t be enough to convince people that they were dating. Maybe they needed more. How on earth would he suggest to Harry that they should snog, at least once, in front of other people?

He decided to drop it, because that would obviously make things weird for them. And he didn’t want something else to worry about. He just wanted to have a chill night, possibly with Harry remembering to bring the take away he asked for during lunch.

And obviously he did, the ever kind soul that Harry was would always remember not to let Louis starve to death because he always forgot to do their groceries. Louis seriously didn’t know what he would do if he didn’t have Harry in his life.

Harry arrived at their flat with Chinese take away, setting the food for them to eat in front of the telly. He too was tired from his shift at the bakery and his afternoon class, but he insisted on them having a lazy night eating and playing video games and who was Louis to deny playing FIFA against Harry just to see him lose?

“You should’ve let me win this time, Louis”, Harry said as he put down his controller beside him on the couch, “you know, as a Valentine’s day gift!” Louis could notice the teasing tone in his voice.

“Oi, I already took you out to eat this afternoon, that was a nice gift, at least the internet thought so,” Louis replied, putting down his controller too and fetching his phone from his pocket. “I never knew a simple tweet saying you had a wonderful lunch with someone would have more than 100 retweets.”

“Imagine what they would say if we posted a picture of our “date night”?” Harry smirked at him.

“‘Aw, Harold, you wanna break the internet?” Louis mocked. “But yeah, let’s do this. We gave them something in the morning and in the afternoon, now it’s only fair to give them something else so they can sleep well thinking how in love we are,” Louis joked, getting his controller again. “Get yours again, Haz, let’s take a picture.”

Harry complied. Louis thought for a second on how to do it. Just a picture showing them holding the controllers wouldn’t be that romantic for a Valentine’s night.

“Ok, lie back, Harold,” he said, putting his hand on Harry’s chest to make him rest against the couch’s arm, “now give me space to lie down between your legs,” he patted Harry’s thighs. Harry moved one leg aside and Louis settled down on his back on top of him against his chest. “Now, do as if you were hugging me and let’s show our controllers.” Harry nodded and enveloped his arm around Louis waist, holding his controller.

Louis lifted his arm with his phone, to take a picture from above, showing their bodies lying together, and the controllers. Their faces weren’t really appearing on the screen but still he felt Harry nuzzling his neck and placing a kiss there and somehow that made a shiver he wasn’t expecting go through his spine. His reaction was to laugh it off while trying to take the photo, which only made it a blurred one.

“Let me take the picture Haz,” Louis elbowed him on the stomach.

“Ouch!” Harry complained, but that didn’t make him stop squeezing Louis in his arms and nuzzling his nose against Louis.

Louis managed to lie still this time and actually got a good picture with half of their faces.

“Nice one,” Harry said, letting go of Louis and placing the controller on the coffee table. Louis got up and did the same, returning to his sitting position on the couch as he posted the picture on his Instagram.

He heard Harry’s phone vibrate next to where he was, and Harry quickly got it to see the photo he had been tagged in.

“And I am the sappy one,” Harry laughed. “‘Sometimes you need to let your boyfriend win over you on Valentine’s day, but you are the one who actually wins when he cuddles you',” he read Louis’ caption, and poked Louis on his thigh with his foot.

“I gotta step up my game, right? Can’t let you be the only one,” Louis slapped Harry’s foot away from him.

“Jesus Christ, these people are crazy,” Harry chortled, “someone already commented they expected a sweet kiss photo because playing video game is not romantic at all. Please, what do they know?”

Louis laughed too; that actually made him remember what he had thought earlier before Harry arrived and it was not that the comment was actually right, but most couples would post photos kissing on Valentine’s day and he and Harry had only posted two very normal photos that day. They could post a photo giving a peck on each other, yes, but it just wasn’t convincing enough.

“Harry,” he called him, a little bit more serious, making the other boy look at him, “talking about kissing…” he cleared his throat.

“What?” Harry locked his phone and put it away.

“I was thinking that maybe it would be more convincing if we kissed,” he said, trying not to sound too nervous.

Harry looked at him confused. “What are you talking about? We did kiss plenty times when we were outside today.”

“Yes, but not a real kiss, like, a proper snog? Someone at my class told me that they found it weird that nobody ever saw us hooking up and well, that’s true. I don’t know, maybe we should do it once in front of people?” Louis was coyly looking at Harry now, only to see Harry’s brow furring.

“You mean, a proper kiss? Tongues involved?” Harry moved to sit down on the couch closer to Louis again.

“Yep.”

Harry was looking at Louis almost without blinking, his brain probably processing what Louis had just proposed.

“Wouldn’t that be awkward? With the quick kisses and kisses on the cheeks, we are used to them, but that’s…” Harry spoke again, pausing to breathe heavily for a moment, “that we never did, obviously.”

“I know, it’s just something I thought. We don’t have to, though, remember what we talked about earlier? I don’t want you doing something that will make you uncomfortable and this isn’t supposed to be something serious, right? We don’t need to be that convin–”

Louis was cut off by Harry putting one hand on his upper arm, getting closer to him. “I said it might be awkward, not uncomfortable. And I think what you said makes sense. I told you I was going full mode. If it’s to make it more believable, then why not?” He smiled, eyes going from Louis’ to his lips. “We would just have to practice, I think.”

Louis gulped with how close Harry’s face was from his. And Harry was right. They couldn’t kiss for the first time in front of people without knowing how to do it with each other first. They were right there already and Harry said it wasn’t uncomfortable for him. They could easily check that off the list.

“Can we practice it now?”

Harry only nodded and closed the distance between them, locking his lips with Louis’, the hand resting on his arm moving up to his neck.

Louis parted his lips to let his tongue search for Harry’s, deepening the kiss. He led his hand to Harry’s neck too, tangling his fingers in the boy’s curls on the back.

It was different, but not weird. Harry’s kiss was sweet, not rushed, and it felt like it was somehow familiar. It was nothing like kissing a stranger at a party. It was Harry, his Harry, his best friend and best friends weren’t supposed to kiss like that, except Louis and Harry now did. It shouldn’t feel so right at the first try. But it did.

The more Louis kissed Harry, the better it felt and he only broke the kiss because he needed to gather himself.

“How about that?” Harry asked, as both of them opened their eyes, smiling timidly at each other.

It took Louis a moment to catch up with his brain and speak.

“Good?” It wasn’t supposed to sound like a question, but he didn’t know what else to say.

“Hm, yeah, it kinda was,” Harry distanced himself a bit, laughing slightly.

“Not that bad for a first try, right?” Louis teased.

Harry raised a brow at him. “You think it could be better?”

It was not that Louis wanted to kiss Harry again. But he totally did. Just to check if it really had been that good or if it was just a fluke.

He shrugged. “Maybe, is it ok? Just so we kill off the last awkwardness, what do you think?”

It was him now who got closer to Harry, barely giving him time to nod, kissing him again.

And yes, kissing Harry a second time was even better than the first.

 

**Wednesday, February 15th**

 

Louis was awake against his will. Today there was no Niall calling him or banging on his door. Also, not because he had to go to his early classes and not even because Harry was being loud while getting ready to go to work.

Truth was: he’d barely slept at night. He could blame that on the amount of food he and Harry had eaten or the amount of Coke he had drunk, but he knew it was neither of that.

It might’ve been because he and Harry had kissed, more than once, that night. And Louis could pretend all he wanted that it was a case of ‘practicing leads to perfection’, when in reality he just kept kissing Harry for how good it was.

Kissing Harry was better than Louis had ever imagined – even if he had never imagined it at all. He had never thought of Harry as anything more than his best friend. They grew up together, did stupid shit together, of course they were close and had their own ways of demonstrating affection for one another, but never like that. A kiss on the cheek, ok. A quick peck on the lips when playing truth or dare after too much booze, that was alright. But kissing, real kissing, french kissing, lots of tongues and gripping hair and feeling his chest in flames because of how good Harry tasted, that was something that never crossed his mind.

He spent the entire night tossing and turning around, thinking why that had happened, trying to understand what he was feeling. Maybe it was normal, with the whole pretending to be dating, maybe it was just hormones and how long it’d been since he’d last kissed someone. Maybe it was maybelline. Yeah, it was the pretending, of course, he had come to that conclusion.

It didn’t mean he would slow down on the PDA. Saturday was only three days away and soon they would stop that and if anything got way too much, way too awkward, they had agreed they would tell each other. So far, neither had said anything. Harry seemed ok with the kissing too, mostly in the beginning. Louis could notice that after the first few times he would hesitate a few seconds before leaning in, but he didn’t complain, so it meant that everything was good.

Still, Louis didn’t have a great night of sleep and around 8 am he found himself walking around their small flat because staying in bed was making him jitterish. The best thing he could do was get up, at a reasonable hour like any normal human being, and have breakfast.

He then stopped at the kitchen door and looked at how clean and organized it was. He loved how every morning Harry made sure everything was in order before he left for work. He could leave it to Louis to wash the dishes, but they knew better Louis would only let cups and plates pile up in the sink.

He smiled at himself and fetched his phone from his jogger’s pocket and decided that it would be a good time to tweet something that would probably give him a hundred notifications.

 _Louis Tomlinson @Louis_Tomlinson  
_ _Need some cereal @Harry_Styles I hope there is milk!!_

He knew there was milk in the fridge – and that was what he found when he opened it and got a pint and then opened the cabinet to get his box of cereal. Harry was never one to leave them out of groceries and, seriously Louis would be lost without him. How had he survived his first two years of Uni without Harry, Louis was not sure. Maybe it was the constant texts from Harry (and also from his mother, of course) reminding him to take care of himself.

He prepared his bowl of cereal and went back to his bedroom to find something on his computer to do. He turned it on and noticed the time – it was almost 9 am and Nick’s show was probably still on, so he decided to listen to it and see if Nick would talk anything about him and Harry.

Dua Lipa was playing when his phone rang with a notification. He smiled to see Harry’s reply to his tweet.

 _Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles  
_ _@Louis_Tomlinson I left you some :) make me a tea please!  haha .x_

He replied with the cup and kissy emojis and locked his phone, now hearing Nick’s voice speaking.

“Sinead, I’m gonna let you speak about the music news in a minute, love. I just have to share this thing that just happened with our listeners,” Nick seemed very excited.

“Oh, what is it?”

“It’s absolutely amazing to see love happening right before your eyes! I’m just seeing the tweet exchanges between Louis and Harry, our beloved new boyfriends.”

“The boys from Monday? How are they? I’ve seen you’re quite obsessed with them. Wait, how did you see their tweets just now? Were you stalking them or do you have their notifications on?”

“I might or might not have their notifications on, but that’s not important. I’m doing a public service here Sinead, the world wants to see real love happening!” Nick laughed.

Louis was laughing too, a bit embarrassed to hear Nick talking about him and Harry like that.

“So, what happened then, Grimmy?” Sinead asked.

“Let’s just recap that last night, on Valentine’s day, it seemed they had a pretty chill night together. I assume they live together already, which is wow, how did they not get together before? Anyway, so, from what I gathered, Harry works in a bakery in the morning and Louis right now might be at home alone – and I hope he’s listening, hello Louis if you are, sorry I’m gossiping about your life.”

Louis laughed again, almost wanting to send Nick a tweet, but he didn’t want to bring more attention than they were already having.

“Oh Nick, you are impossible,” Sinead commented.

“Can’t contain myself, I know. So, let me just tell you how domestic they are. Louis was probably wanting breakfast and tweeted Harry about milk for his cereal and Harry obviously the good gentleman that he seems to be, answered promptly that he had left some for Louis and asked Louis to prepare him a cuppa. I mean, you don’t see this kind of chivalry everyday. It’s just too much for me to handle. They are so lovely with each other, possibly the cutest couple I’ve ever seen.”

“Aw, they do seem adorable! The other couples are also lovely, right?”

“Oh yeah, they are! Martin and Glen from yesterday were just sweet pies and I still have to do my research on Clara and Amanda from today, who won a pair of tickets to see the London premier of Beauty and The Beast next week along with a romantic dinner, but the girls were super fun to talk to. Love is clearly on the radio this week! Now Sinead, enough with it because I’m feeling lovesick already. Hit us with the latest music news you’ve got.”

Louis listened to Nick and Sinead talk for a bit and then the songs that came after.

He felt less exposed to know that Nick was talking about the other couples who had won the Valentine’s contest too, but still, he and Harry seemed to be in the spotlight. He had never imagined that this would have happened when he texted the BBC and when he got the tickets, but well, now there they were and pretending was better than losing the tickets for good. There wasn’t really any problem with gaining a hundred followers on Twitter and Instagram, with people he never met commenting on his life and talking about him and his boyfriend – fake boyfriend/best friend, actually. He and Harry had been friends for more than 10 years and nothing had ever come between them and that wasn’t going to happen just now.

If anything, this would only make he and Harry closer, more united, knowing that they could always trust each other and have each other’s back, no matter what. Louis really had to thank all the God’s above for Harry playing along with him. They were best friends for life and Louis couldn’t possibly love him more for that. And if they got to kiss a little for a while, that was a only a plus (a very good plus that Louis was trying not to wrap his head around it too much).

 

*****

 

Wednesdays nights were the best nights because somehow their weird group of friends had decided to make it a Lads night, which meant Harry, Louis, Niall, Zayn and Liam would choose one of the flats to spend the night and kill the mid-week stress from work and the classes by simply watching a movie and eating junk food.

That night was a Harry Potter night and Harry was happy to meet with the other boys right after his class had finished. He walked up to them, who were all waiting by their usual tree in front of the entrance of the campus.

He hadn’t properly seen them since Monday morning when they all had invaded his and Louis’ flat, only talking through their groupchat after. Louis, though, he hadn’t seen since last night – well, properly, because who was he to deny that he hadn’t lingered by the boy’s door for a couple of minutes watching him sleep before he pulled himself together and left to go to the bakery.

Harry had to really pull himself together after last night’s occurrence. Yes, he knew very well that he had indulged Louis into kissing him. Yeah, of course, let’s kiss just to practice, let’s just get this right another time, let’s just keep kissing because we are in the mood to keep doing so, apparently.

He almost thought about telling Louis to stop, not because it was getting uncomfortable, but because he didn’t know if he would be able to refrain himself from jumping onto Louis’ lap. He probably had his life’s dream come true that night, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t greedy; kissing Louis was the best thing that had ever happened to him so far – he could only imagine what it was to have Louis for himself for real.

Those shouldn’t be his thoughts. Louis was his best friend and he had managed to spend most of his teenage life controlling himself, and it wasn’t supposed to change just because they were kissing – only for show – now.  But with Louis being the one initiating the other kisses, it was really hard to think straight and to know what the hell was going on. They didn’t have to keep kissing for that long and not talking about it after, only breathing heavily as they kept looking at each other and then Louis getting up saying, “yeah, Harold, I think we’re good tonight. I’m knackered, see ya tomorrow” and heading to his room.

And now, there was Louis again, in front of him with his usual smile as if nothing had happened.

Harry took in his surroundings to see some people observing them, because apparently they had become the University’s new celebrities. Niall, Liam and Zayn were also looking at him with their smug faces, since they were about to see them acting like boyfriends in public for the first time. That was a hell of an opportunity and Harry wouldn’t let it pass.

He walked confidently towards Louis, smiling broadly at him until he was only a few inches far from him. He saw Louis’ expression change, brows furring just as Harry spoke.

“Hi, babe,” he didn’t wait for Louis to greet him back, quickly sealing their lips and bringing a hand to rest on Louis’ jaw. He pressed his lips gently against Louis’, giving very small pecks and lastly, biting his lower lip. He felt Louis linger for the touch as he held Harry by the arm and let his tongue lick at his lip, slightly asking for permission to deepen the kiss. Harry smiled and pecked Louis one last time before he let go of him.

“What the fuck!” Niall exclaimed beside them. “When did this, what the–”

“Dude, people are watching, act like you know they are dating.” Zayn elbowed him, speaking very lowly only for their group to hear.

“How can I act like I know everything when this just happened. Liam, you saw this, right? I’m not…” He turned quickly to look incredulously at Liam who was just staring at them with no reaction. “When did you? Have you kissed before? What did I–”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Nialler, can’t two boyfriends kiss in front of their friends?” Louis turned to them, breathing heavily. Harry turned too, with a sneaky smile on his face.

“We needed to show the PDA, Niall, calm down,” he laughed, looking for Louis’ hand to hold.

“Oh my God, this is too much,” Niall put the back of his hand against his forehead. “You are seriously looking like proper boyfriends, I don’t think my heart has the strength to deal with this.”

“Two cute boyfriends by the way,” Zayn added, winking at them. “Right, Payno?”

Liam shook his head. “You are fucking unbelievable, and cute indeed, yeah, that you are.”

“See, Harold, that was convincing enough, I told ya,” Louis squeezed his hand.

Harry turned to face him again, to see him smiling with those crinkled eyes of his. Harry couldn’t contain himself and kissed him on the cheek. “Yeah, you were right.”

“Right lovebirds, let’s get going,” Liam patted Harry on the shoulder. “We decided to go to ours tonight before you arrived, since all the Harry Potter dvds are there.”

“He already separated them on top of the coffee table before he left for class. Don’t pretend you didn’t plan this ahead, Liam,” Zayn rolled his eyes.

“I take my Harry Potter nights very serious, Zayn, sod off.” Liam punched him on the arm.

“You take your Harry Potter obsession way too seriously, that’s what,” Harry commented, starting to walk, Louis still holding his hand and following him.

“Have you decided on what House each one of us are already? The bloody talking hat takes a minute to do that on the fucking movie and it’s taking you years to decide, Liam, what the hell,” Louis teased, following Harry.

“I’m not the Sorting Hat, am I? It’s hard, man, you guys never take the Pottermore quiz when I send the link,” Liam pouted beside them.

“That’s because you are fucking annoying,” Niall added, walking behind them, “and I already told you, I’m a Slytherin.”

“For the hundredth time, Niall, just because you dye your hair blond, that doesn’t make you like Draco,” Liam gave Niall the finger. “But ok, you wanna be in Slytherin, you do you. I’m more concerned about Harry here, he’s a freaking mystery.”

“What? Why?” Harry asked confused.

“Sometimes I think you are a Hufflepuff, sometimes I think you’re a Slytherin, but you are a big softie most of the time…”

“Hey, I can be very sly too, you know that,” Harry protested.

“Yeah we do, Styles, very well,” Zayn said from Louis’ other side, giving them both a knowing smile.

“I swear I don’t understand this discussion at all,” Louis scoffed, “like, seriously, people always want to be in the big ones, right? Just pick one, for fuck’s sake.”

“I’d say you could be a Slytherin too, or maybe a Gryffindor, Tommo, but you lack the House Pride to be either one. Maybe you aren’t made for Hogwarts. You will be our Muggle friend, then.” Liam smiled at him.

“How old are you, Liam? It’s just a freaking movie. Let’s stop this nonsense and just go to your flat ‘cause it’s freezing and I’m hungry.” Louis got a little closer to Harry, snuggling up to him.

Harry quickly untangled their hands to put his arm around Louis’ shoulder and make him comfortable in his embrace while they walked. Louis enveloped his arm around Harry’s waist, squeezing him slightly.

He had to breathe deeply once to settle the feeling that was spreading across his chest, because it was like he and Louis would always fit together, in any way, be it being friends, walking hand in hand, embracing each other or kissing. Harry wanted to put those thoughts away and focus on how temporary this was. While he had it, though, he would enjoy it, even if sometimes it was too much for him to handle how much he loved Louis and how deeper he was falling for him.

 

*

 

“Are you sure you wanna go to Josh’s party on Friday?” Louis asked as soon as they stepped inside their flat after coming back later that night.

“Yeah, Lou, no problem, I told ya,” Harry hung his scarf and coat and took off his shoes. They all had received a message from Josh inviting them to go over his on Friday in celebration of Valentine’s Day and all the boys were excited to go. Louis seemed to be too before, but now, Harry wasn’t so sure anymore.

“I know, it’s just…” Louis left his shoes by the door too and walked to their small kitchen. “We have the game on Saturday, and if we don’t want to miss it or get late, we won’t be able to party all night long like we usually do on Fridays.”

“Oh, right,” Harry dropped his backpack on the couch. “Well, we can just head home earlier. Josh’s parties are always fun, though. It will be a shame to miss it, right?”

“Good, right, yeah, we’ll do that then,” Louis replied and Harry could notice that he wasn’t being into it as he normally would be. He wouldn’t push him to tell him if there was something wrong with going to the party.

“Settled then?” Harry walked to the kitchen.

“Yep,” Louis simply said.

Harry watched Louis leaning against the sink, entertaining himself with something. He then looked around to see that he had left his backpack on top of the table. Harry got it in his hands. “Are you hungry?” He questioned.

Louis just turned his head around. “Oh, no, it’s… Nothing.”

Harry quirked a brow at him. “Louis! You can’t possibly be hungry after all those snacks, crisps and beer. I’m almost passing out for how much I ate.”

“Then go to bed, Haz,” Louis smiled at him. “Wednesdays are your favorite nights to sleep, no waking up at 4-arse-crack-o’clock in the morning, right? Enjoy a good night's sleep. Don’t bother with me, just gotta do something very quick here.”

“Ok?” Harry was suspicious of what Louis was doing, but he wouldn’t discuss anymore. Louis was clearly up to something and acting weird that night. Not to mention how cuddled up they were when at the boys’.

It wasn’t unusual for them to always sit next to each other and share their food. Harry was definitely hoping to take advantage of their fake dating to spoil Louis that night, only he didn’t expect Louis to respond so well to that as they weren’t in public. It was a lads night, they didn’t have to pretend for them, they knew they weren’t dating. Still, Louis held his hand, or rested his against Harry’s thigh, sometimes pinching him whenever there was an exciting scene in the movie, or asking him if he wanted to eat anything and actually feeding some crisps to Harry like it was no big deal. Harry had played himself because Louis was actually the one to spoil him and he didn’t know what to make of it.

“Right, yeah, I’m going to bed then” Harry cleared his throat after Louis turned around again, facing the sink. “I’ll leave your bag in your bedroom, you messy tornado.”

“Thanks, babycakes,” Louis didn’t turn again and Harry left the kitchen, getting his own backpack from the living room and going first to Louis’ bedroom to drop his bag there before heading to his own room.

He did his night routine and changed into his pajamas, lying in bed but not really sleepy. He was used to sleeping early everyday, but on Wednesdays it was always the same – he would go to bed after lads night expecting to be knocked out and sleep more than the 4 hours he usually got as he didn’t need to wake up at dawn, but his brain would always make him stay awake longer. He then resorted to the one thing he knew would help: turning on the TV to see if the low volume and the light from it would make him sleepy. He was changing the channels when there was a knock on the door and before he answered, Louis’ head was poking inside his room.

“Ok, I lied,” Louis said as he opened the door with his side and entered the room with two mugs in his hand, “I wasn’t doing something quick, although making tea is pretty fast, obviously.”

“Lou, what…?” Harry got to a sitting position in bed as Louis sat down beside him.

“Here, I made this for you,” he handed Harry his usual rainbow mug, “to relax today because you deserve it after the crazy start of the week we’ve had.”

Harry took the mug in his hand, smelling the amazing tea Louis had prepared. “You didn’t need to,” he shook his head before taking a sip.

“All for the bestest mate that there is out there, aka the one and only Harry Edward Styles,” Louis smiled at him and drank from his mug too. “Weren’t you going to sleep? Why are you watching TV? An old Backstreet Boys music video even?”

Harry laughed, putting his mug on his nightstand and seeing that the video had indeed just started. “I was about to try to sleep, you know how watching the telly very low makes me sleepy.”

“I don’t think watching Nick Carter dancing will make you more sleepy, at all,” Louis teased, putting his mug down along with Harry’s and looking at the TV, “but hey… _Although loneliness has always been a friend of mine I'm leaving my life in your hands_ ,” he started to sing along with the song, “ _people say I'm crazy and that I am blind, risking it all in a glance_ , c’mon Haz, sing with me.”

Harry laughed and joined Louis as Brian started singing too. “ _And how you got me blind is still a mystery, I can't get you out of my head. Don't care what is written in your history as long as you're here with me._ ”

“ _I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you did as long as you love me,_ ” they started singing the chorus together looking at each other and laughing.

They kept singing, interchanging the lyrics as the singers changed too and it reminded Harry of old times, when they were back at home, having their sleepovers, listening to their favorite boybands and how back then he already knew that Louis was the one for him. Well, As Long As You Love Me actually made a lot of sense for how he felt for him –how he always has felt.

By the end of the song, both of them were still laughing, Harry resting his head on Louis’ chest as Louis held him tightly.

“Wait, I have to document this,” Harry announced suddenly, sitting up straight again to look for his phone on the nightstand. He got it and quickly opened the Twitter app, writing a message.

 _Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles  
_ _@Louis_Tomlinson just came and got in my bed with a cup of tea. Backstreet Boys are on 4Music... Typical Wednesday._

Louis was watching him type up the tweet, without taking his arm from around his shoulder.

“Aw, yeah, very typical of us, Harold,” he ran his hand up and down Harry’s upper arm, his other hand holding his mug of tea, as he drank another sip.

They watched more music videos together and finished their teas, but Louis never made any motion to leave the bed. He laid down beside Harry, bringing him closer so he could proper snuggle him, resting his head on Louis’ shoulder.

“‘M sleppy, Harold, and your bed is so, so comfortable,” Louis’ voice was already very soft.

“It gotta be comfortable otherwise my back would’ve been ruined,” Harry chuckled, already feeling his eyelashes heavy against his eyes.

“That’s true, hmm,” Louis mumbled. “I don’t have the strength to get up now, though. I think I’m gonna pass out here if you don’t kick me out.”

Harry opened his eyes to look up at Louis. “You can stay, Lou, no problem,” he gave him a sleepy smile.

“God, where will I find another one like you?” Louis smiled down at him too. “I promise not to kick you this time,” he settled himself better on the bed and Harry got the duvet to cover them.

“I’ll end up on the floor again if you kick me, so better not,” Harry laughed, getting the remote and turning off the telly. “Night, Lou,” he smiled one last time at Louis and before he could stop himself, he kissed Louis’ cheek quickly.

“Night, Haz,” Louis brought his face closer to Harry’s again. Harry tilted his face slightly, expecting him to return the kiss on the cheek, but then suddenly Louis’ lips were on his instead. Blame it on being sleep drunk or something, because what was meant to be a small peck, quickly escalated into Louis’ hand gripping at his hair and Harry giving in into the kiss.

What the hell were they doing?

“Shit, sorry, Haz,” Louis fast withdraw himself, eyes a little alarmed looking at Harry. “I didn’t– I’m too sleepy, sorry, I think I got a little carried away.”

Harry licked his lips, trying to gather his thoughts. “No, Lou… I mean, no problem, it’s alright. I’m sleepy too, it happens,” he cleared his throat.

“Yeah, yeah…” Harry could notice Louis didn’t realize his hand was still on Harry’s neck, unconsciously massaging there. “I just... I’m really sleepy, I might’ve put too much sugar in the tea,” he laughed faintly.

“You don’t even take sugar in your tea,” Harry laughed briefly too.

“That’s why then. I’m really, really, very much sleepy right now.” Instead of moving away from Harry, Louis was coming closer again, his nose booping with Harry’s.

“Uhmm,” Harry hummed, closing his eyes, feeling Louis’ warm breathing against his skin.

“Like, so stupidly sleep, you know, doing stupid things, could keep doing some real stupid shit for quite some–”

"Just kiss me." Harry cut him off abruptly, locking their lips, searching for Louis’ tongue to meet his again.

They weren’t supposed to be kissing like that, in bed, so sweetly and slowly, their sleepiness not bothering them or making them stop. It felt good, as all the other kisses they had shared so far had been. It felt more than right and that was where Harry wanted to be, had always wanted to be: lying beside Louis in bed, at the end of the day, just kissing as if nothing else mattered. He had let his guard down and it didn’t feel like it was pretending anymore.

 

**Thursday, February 16th**

 

Harry woke up the next day with his alarm going off. It took him a few seconds to blindly find his phone on the nightstand and to put it on snooze, making the annoying ringing stop for a bit.

His first reaction was to cover his head with the duvet again but then he realized the room was lighter than it usually was from the time he woke up everyday. It hit him then that it was Thursday, meaning Lads Night, meaning – last night Louis had slept on his bed, with them kissing until they fell asleep together.

He quickly turned to his other side to find the bed empty. That was weird.

Louis also had morning classes on Thursdays so he would always wake up 5 minutes before the time they had to leave for Uni. So, either Louis had gone back to his bed during the night or he had woken up earlier than Harry.

He tried not to think about it. He knew they had crossed a line last night, because it was just them, there wasn’t anyone to see them kissing, and yet, they didn’t stop nor said that they weren’t comfortable with it. Harry wasn’t sorry for what had happened, though. Probably they would blame it on how sleepy they were – Louis was probably gonna say that, but for Harry, he knew it hadn’t been that. He kissed Louis because he wanted to and he would keep kissing Louis if and for how long he was allowed to. It only depended on how Louis felt about it.

His phone started ringing again and Harry knew he couldn’t delay getting out of bed anymore and get ready that morning.

After showering, putting on his clothes and gathering his phone, backpack and camera, he left the room to see Louis’ bedroom door closed. For a moment he thought he would be sleeping in there and his heart hurt for a split second, but then he heard noises coming from the kitchen and he breathed relieved, walking towards the room.

He found Louis already dressed up and the table set with a plate of (ugly) pancakes and a bowl of cereal. Louis turned around as Harry stepped closer to the table, carrying both their mugs.

“Oh, you’re up already,” Louis shyly smiled at him. “I made breakfast.”

Harry stopped before his usual chair to take in what was going on. It was rare the number of times he had seen Louis prepare a meal, specially in the morning.

“How long have you been up?” Harry asked, sitting down, hanging his backpack on the back of the chair. Louis then offered him his mug and Harry took it, murmuring a thanks.

Louis sat down on the chair in front of him. “An hour, more, I don’t know,” he placed his mug next to his bowl and then started munching on his cereal.

Harry eyed Louis suspiciously. Yeah, he didn’t have his sleepy face anymore and he didn’t seem tired either.

“Did you not sleep well in my bed?” Harry attempted to ask nonchalantly.

Louis looked up at him with a spoon in his mouth. “Mhmmm, I did,” he answered after gulping.

“I thought you had left, during the night, I don’t know,” Harry shrugged, getting a pancake and filling it with nutella.

“Nope, I said I was really comfortable in your bed, and also, you give good cuddles. I slept like a baby, was totally knackered, too bothered to leave.” Louis smiled at him again and resumed eating his cereal.

Right, they weren’t touching the subject directly, so was Louis referring to the kisses as cuddles? Was he saying that he was comfortable with what they were doing?

“I’m always here for the cuddles, Lou. Whenever you feel like slipping in my bed for more cuddles...” he ate his pancake and then sipped from his tea.

“Don’t tempt me because I will, but I promise I won’t attack you with my kisses again. Sorry about that,” Louis gave him an apologetically smile.

His tea almost stopped on his throat and Harry coughed to clear his throat. “Oh, no, that was… no problem, Lou. We both, hm–”

“It’s ok, right? I mean, we’re good? It was just the sleepy moment, I guess. Nothing wrong with some cozy snogging in bed, right? It didn’t make you uncomfortable, did it?” Louis had stopped eating his cereal, looking a bit concerned at Harry as he drank from his tea.

Harry looked back at him. He wanted to kiss Louis right there and then just to prove him that he could – that kissing him was more than ok, but he refrained himself.

“It’s all ok, Lou. I’ve told you a hundred times, if it gets weird, we’ll talk, won’t we? Was it weird for you?” Louis shook his head promptly and Harry smiled at him, “then we’re good.”

They resumed eating their breakfast. The mood wasn’t heavy between them, they were acting like themselves, talking as if last night hadn’t been a big deal. Harry couldn’t miss, though, the soft smiles Louis was giving him as they finished their meal and got ready to leave for Uni.

They caught their usual bus to go to campus, sharing a double seat. The ride to campus wasn’t too long, but they would always listen to music together during the 10-15 minutes they had.

“How about we listen to Grimmy today?” Louis suggested as Harry was about to select their usual playlist. “Maybe we can catch him talking about us, what do you think?”

“Yeah, probably,” Harry laughed, quickly searching for his BBC iPlayer app, “he might’ve had talked about us already, since Niall was all over our Twitter yesterday.”

“Can you believe Niall got Nick Grimshaw to follow him too?” Louis joked.

“Nick is trying to know all about our lives from every source he can get, including Niall,” Harry shook his head.

Paris from The Chainsmokers was playing when the app opened.

“We are close to today’s 8 am word reveal, so our listeners must be prepared to answer correctly today’s question: When was the Royal Opera House founded? We’re throwing some history quiz out there today for the Opera lovers! I’m excited to know the couple who will win the contest today, Tina, aren’t you?” Nick spoke as soon as the song was over.

“Totally! And talking about couples, how are our previous lovely winners, Nick? You haven’t given us an update on them yet,” Tina instigated.

“Oh, are people still interested in them?” Nick had a teasing tone.

“Of course we are, you don’t start gossiping about people everyday and then stop, Nicholas! Tell us, how are those adorable boys doing? Have they given people any cavities today with their sweet tweets and photos?

“Harry and Louis? Oh, they never stop! Those boys keep throwing their newly found love at our faces, it’s just too sweet. I saw from one of their friends that they were having a lads night and he posted a picture of them sharing a sweet kiss on the cheek, all snuggled up. Later at night, they continued to show that romance was not dead. Yesterday I thought Harry was the romantic one, making sure Louis didn’t miss his breakfast, but I don’t know if you remember? Harry asked Louis for some tea and then at night, guess what happened?” Nick asked.

“What? Don’t tell me Louis prepared Harry tea?”

“You’re right, Tina, he did! Imagine being this caring to your partner! Where can people find two boys like them? They are truly a one true pairing, what the youngsters call today an OTP. Do you think we should give them a shipping name?”

Both Louis and Harry chuckled. Harry was actually blushing.

“I think I saw something on Twitter about Larry? A combination of Louis and Harry?” Tina commented.

“I might call them Larry then. But Larry is such a generic name, right? Wait, let’s make them a bit posh. It’s Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, right? How about… let me think. Oh my, their names are too hard, wait… hm, maybe Larry Tomlinstyles? Larry Stylinson?”

“Oh, I like Stylinson!” Tina cheered. “Yeah, Larry Stylinson!”

“Gotta make that trending then! Twitter, let’s get working!” Nick laughed.

“Larry Stylinson,” Louis snorted beside Harry, paying no attention to the comments Nick was making about the other couples.

“I like it, shut it!” Harry slapped him on the arm. “Do you think people will actually trend it?”

“We have been trending everyday, Harold. Nick has the power to do that. Now shush it, let’s listen to the show,” Louis poked him on his dimple before he kissed his cheek.

Harry tried to stop blushing even more but it was impossible with Louis displaying some PDA when it wasn’t necessary.

They got off from the bus a few minutes later, walking towards their campus. They stopped by the entrance before heading to their respective classes.

“You wanna join me and Niall for lunch today? I’m gonna help him with some photos for one of his papers later.” Harry asked, still holding Louis’ hand.

“I think Zayn asked me to go with him get some art supplies for a project after class before he heads to the studio. Then I have the theater group with the kids, sorry, I’ll go next time.” Louis shrugged apologetically.

“Ah, no problem. See you back at the flat later then?” He swung their linked hands.

“Yup,” Louis smiled at him, squeezing his hand. “See you later then, Haz.” Harry could see that Louis got a step closer to him, but actually hesitated on what to do next.

Right, that was the part where they were supposed to kiss in front of the other students, but how to do that when it seemed they weren’t just kissing only for show anymore.

“See ya, Lou” Harry decided to take one for the team and do it once and for all. It shouldn’t be too hard to just kiss Louis in public again. He closed the distance between them and pecked on Louis’ lips.

It was supposed to be a quick goodbye kiss, but Louis hand was holding Harry by the arm and his lips were pressing hard against Harry’s. He didn’t mean to part his lips, letting Louis’ slip his tongue in, but it happened. It was a quick one though, but a kiss nonetheless and when they broke apart, Louis simply smiled at him, pressing his thumb on Harry’s cheek and walking away.

Harry stood there, watching Louis go inside the build and up the stairs that led to his classroom.

Right, they were doing the kissing thing then. The real kissing thing without warning or complaining and Harry just didn’t know what to make of it.

 

*

 

“So, what was that last night?” Zayn asked as he searched for a set of different oil paints on the shelves of the store.

“What?” Louis followed behind him, fingers slightly brushing the different tubes of paint.

“C’mon, Tommo, don’t play dumb again. You and Harry…” Liam got a paintbrush in his hand, poking the furry part on Louis’ nose.

“Oi, stop that!” Louis slapped the paintbrush away after it tickled him, “and what about me and Harry?” He asked nonchalantly.

“Louis,” Zayn turned to face him, “please, the pretending is fine when you’re outside and fake dating on the internet, but dude, you don’t need to do that near us? I’ve never thought I'd see you and Harry closer than you already were, and yet, yesterday I was almost vomiting for how loved up you two were while watching the movie. Not to mention the kiss you shared before that. I didn’t think you’d go that far with all the ‘there’s nothing between me and Harry, we’re just best friends’. Yeah, my arse.” Zayn’s tone was serious, but his expression was serene.

Louis breathed heavily, looking from Zayn to Liam, who had his brow raised at him.

“We just thought it would be better to really act like a couple, like, do all the proper things a couple do, so we don’t fuck this up. We might’ve practiced a little at home before kissing outside, that’s what happened,” Louis got a blue paint in his hand, “is this the tone you are looking for?” he showed it to Zayn, who just rolled his eyes and took the tube from Louis’ hand and put it in its place again.

“Are you shitting me?” Liam asked outraged.

“Don’t change the subject, Louis,” Zayn puffed, “you kissed Harry in private? For fuck’s sake, Louis, and he was alright with it?”

“Yeah, Zayn, fuck, if it wasn’t alright we wouldn’t be doing this. We made an agreement to tell the other if it got too awkward. Everything is so good so far, why are you worrying so much about us? We know what we are doing,” Louis started walking again, passing by between Zayn and Liam, both exchanging a concerned look.

“Louis, did you ever stop to think why Harry said yes to it, so promptly?” Liam questioned as he started following Louis.

“You think he would make me look like a fool on live radio? I knew I should’ve asked him first, but he is my best friend, he has never let me down before.” Louis stopped, turning to them again.

“Just that?” Zayn got closer to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, “just because you two have been best friends forever and never let the other down? Not because, maybe, it’s like, quite obvious that he has feelings for you?”

“What?” Louis stepped away from Zayn, “what are you talking about, Malik?”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Are you really that oblivious? Bloody hell, Louis, even my mother knows the boy is in love with you.”

Louis was looking at them astonished. What the fuck were they talking about? Where had they gotten that idea from?

“Mate, we all believed you guys were dating when we first met you. We just thought you were actually too shy and reserved to show any PDA in front of us,” Zayn started explaining. “It was only until you were hooking up with other people that we realized there was nothing going on. I mean, there was no way you would be in an open relationship with how clingy you were with each other, so we realized you weren’t actually together.”

“The fuck? Seriously,” Louis shook his head, trying to make sense of what Zayn was saying, “that’s just how we are!” He lift his hands in the air, “we’ve always been like this, there was never anything romantic about it, fucking hell.”

“Only now, there is,” Liam added giving him a pointed look, “and don’t you see how weird it is for two friends who were never romantic before to just start kissing in public and to ‘practice’ in private out of nowhere? If it were me and Zayn, or Niall, or Zayn and Niall, we would never be comfortable with it. And it’s not because I don’t like boys, Tommo, shut up,” Liam cut Louis off before he could make a joke, “they are my best friends, you and Harry are also our friends, but kissing, cuddling, acting like proper boyfriends to each other would never be ok. We wouldn’t act normally about it like the two of you, because we don’t like each other like that, you see?”

“And who said I like Harry like that? I do love him, yes, as my friend. Fuck, he’s been a part of my life for more than half of it, there’s no way I wouldn’t love him.” Louis argued.

“And are you sure you know Harry doesn’t love you more than just as a friend? Have you never noticed anything, Louis? For fuck’s sake, you live with him,” Zayn shook his head.

Louis closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling deeply.

Just because they lived together and spent most of the time together, it didn’t mean they were more than friends. And even with the fake dating thing now. They were best friends, that’s all that they had ever been.

Although, he couldn’t deny that their friendship was different from what they had with other people. Louis had always considered it to be like that because they had literally been in each other’s lives for longer than any of their friends, they had been through things together that they couldn’t have shared with any other.

They had a unique relationship, they took care of each other, they cared for each other more than anyone else. Louis couldn’t imagine his life without Harry in it, that was just it. There wasn’t a Louis without a Harry and neither a Harry without a Louis.

Louis had just never seen it as anything more than them being just very close friends, because having Harry as his best friend was all he knew. Now, though, he knew what it was like to kiss Harry and he wasn’t sure anymore that being only friends was all he wanted.

Fuck, he had fought for the past couple of days to admit that he hadn’t enjoyed kissing Harry as much as he did and that he couldn’t wait to have Harry close to him again. That’s why he was acting the way he did at the boys’ flat. That’s why he couldn’t stop kissing Harry the previous night. That’s why only the thought of imagining Harry at Josh’s party might have made him a little jealous because Harry was the type of person to talk to everybody, catch everyone’s attention and flirt naturally and he didn’t know if he was ready to have Harry sharing his attention with anyone else but him. That’s why Louis simply kissed Harry goodbye that morning without asking if it was ok for them to kiss like that again.

He couldn’t admit that in front of his friends. They were right and Louis could never, ever let them know that they were right about how Louis felt before he even realized what the hell was going on with his feelings.

And fuck them for making him aware that Harry probably had feelings for him, might have had them for longer than Louis would like to think about. But if Harry liked him, why hadn’t he told him before? Why was he putting himself in the situation they were now without knowing if Louis felt the same? He was completely lost on what was going on with him and Harry and was terrified to fuck up their friendship over some mistakes and miscommunication.

“There’s nothing going on between me and Harry, lads, seriously,” he finally spoke again, “if Harry liked me, he would’ve told me, he wouldn’t do that to himself, I know him,” Louis said it, more to convince himself than anything. “And seriously, sod off, it’s none of your business if we kissed once or more times before yesterday. We aren’t kids, we know what we are doing.”

“Right,” Zayn laughed sarcastically, “I’ll believe that as much as you believe you and Harry are just fake dating,” he turned to look at the shelf full of tubes of paint again.

“We are just trying to make sure you and Harry don’t hurt yourselves for being simply too stupid,” Liam shrugged, “but if you say so, then well, there’s nothing we can do. Just be careful, Louis, and try to fucking pay more attention to what happens around you before you do some crazy shit again.”

Louis puffed and turned his attention to the other shelf. “Is that all? Did we come here to talk about my life or to help Zayn choose between a freaking dark green and a slightly darker one?” Louis took two tubes of paint in his hand, shaking them in front of Zayn’s face.

“Fuck off, Tommo,” Zayn flipped him off, but took both tubes in his hands and, examining them, “actually, these are pretty good tones.”

“See? I don’t know why you guys worry so much about me, I always know what I’m doing,” Louis gave them a smug smile and Liam slapped him on the head.

They didn’t nag him about Harry anymore, and Louis felt relieved about that. It didn’t mean that for the rest of the afternoon, while he dealt with the group of children he taught at the theater group, his mind had dropped the subject completely. He might or might not now be into Harry, his best friend, and how to deal with that... Louis just didn’t know yet.

 

*

 

“I guess we have enough photos for now, Hazza,” Niall said patting Harry on the back, “who would’ve thought people actually like to play footie outside in this cold,” Niall laughed, hugging himself to protect him from the cold wind as he walked closer to a bench near by in the park, and sat down.

Harry followed him putting his camera inside his backpack again and sat down beside him. “Crazy people with crazy habits, go figure,” he shrugged.

“Talking about crazy,” Niall got a sandwich from his backpack and Harry looked at him incredulously. “What?”

“We just had lunch, Niall,” Harry chuckled.

“Excuse me, we’ve been taking pictures for about two hours now, I’m allowed to have a snack,” Niall munched on the sandwich mindlessly.

“I was the one taking the pictures, you were just bossing me around,” Harry shook his head, incredulous.

“Directing takes lots of energy, Styles. You should ask your boyfriend, he’s the one studying to become a director.”

“What? Who?”

NIall stared at him blankly. “Louis.”

“Niall, Louis is not my boyfriend, you know it,” Harry defended himself.

“Oh yes, I was just about to start on the crazy subject anyway, so let’s talk about it right now,” he enveloped his sandwich with the wrapping paper again and turned to face Harry better. “What’s going on between you and Louis, for real?”

Harry was taken by surprise with Niall’s straightforwardness, it took him a moment to know what answer him.

“Nothing is going on?”

“Yeah, of course nothing is going on, because when nothing is going on with me and my best friend with whom I am pretending to be dating, I totally kiss him like we’ve been doing that for years. I cuddle him while we watch a movie together as well. I look at him like he has hung the fucking moon and the stars for me, yeah. So nothing, right?” Niall spoke firmly and seriously; Harry only stared at him in shock.

“What the hell, Ni?”

Niall looked at him knowingly, “Please, Harry, don’t pretend you don’t know you’re taking this whole fake dating thing further than it was supposed to be. You are actually kissing Louis, something we both know you have been dreaming about since you’ve got your first boner.”

“Christ, Niall, can you be any more discreet?” Harry slapped him on the arm, “and ugh, we just–  Louis was the one to suggest we should, like, practice and I just went with it. I wouldn’t say no, I’m not an idiot. And yes, I know I took advantage of it, don’t roll your eyes at me like that, stop judging me,” Harry pointed a finger at Niall.

“Fuck, Harry, but this is not pretending anymore, at least for you! You guys are actually dating without knowing that you are. Well, at least Louis might not be aware of this, that slow fuckwit. Nobody, who is pretending, French kisses their best friend like that. You guys took it too far, don’t you think?”

“You were the one who suggested it, Niall, have you forgotten? Why are you being a pain in the arse about it now?”

“I suggested doing it for the internet! For Nick Grimshaw, for fuck’s sake, not for the whole Uni to see and even less for me and the rest of the lads. And I sure as fuck did not say that you should be putting your tongues down each other’s throat!” Niall threw his arms up and down in the air. “How many times have you guys kissed anyway? Because that kiss surely wasn’t the first.”

Harry plucked his lower lip between his thumb and index finger, looking at Niall with a guilty expression.

“We might have kissed more than once when practicing. And we might have kissed yesterday too, several times before we slept,” he confessed.

“What?!” Niall closed his eyes, rubbing his fingers over them tiredly, “Unbelievable! Harry, what the fuck, seriously? You’re kissing Louis just because you feel like it, this is not ok!”

“I am not the one kissing him! He’s kissing me as well, Niall, he has initiated it multiple times!”

“Jesus fucking Christ, you are the worst people on earth! And you think this is normal? Yeah, I’m secretly hopelessly in love with my best friend who has never showed any interest in me, so it’s totally normal for both of us to just snog the hell out of each other!”

“Niall, please, calm the fuck down! This is not that serious, we just got too carried away once, it won’t happened again. I know we shouldn’t be doing this but, fine, arrest me because I got to kiss the boy I've been daydreaming about for years and was just too much of a coward to stop it while I enjoyed it and Louis seemed to be ok with it too.”

“And why would Louis be ok with it if just the other day he was swearing on his life that you and him were only friends?” Niall furred his brows at Harry. “Christ, you two are ridiculous, seriously.”

Harry closed his eyes, breathing deeply. “He just wants it to be believable, I don’t know, and I’m doing what I can to help it.”

“Maybe he wants it just like you do?”

Harry shot his eyes open at Niall’s words. “What? No!”

“Why not? Harry, you guys are literally acting like a couple, even more couple-y than any boyfriends or girlfriends I’ve seen in my entire life. Why Louis developing feelings for you seems so absurd when you have been in love with your best friend for years?”

“Because it’s Louis! He has never…” Harry shook his head slightly.

“He has never…? Well, you guys had never kissed before, but now you have, so this changes things.” Niall shrugged.

“It doesn’t...” Harry tried to argue, but he didn’t know what to say, because he hadn’t even considered it. Well, he did find Louis’ attitude a bit off, too eager and too spontaneous. He hadn’t given it too much thought, though; he didn’t want to give himself false hope.

For all the while they had been friends, he knew Louis had never quite felt the same way as he  had. It wouldn’t be 3, almost 4 days of being closer and sharing kisses that would change things.

“Stop being an idiot, Harry. You don’t just start kissing people for pretend and then keep kissing because you get too carried away. You kiss people because you like it and you keep kissing them because you like them.” Niall rolled his eyes at Harry. “You can’t deny that, and if Louis is having any feelings for you now, he’s probably hiding it the same way you have been hiding yours from him. He might even have had them for longer, because he could’ve picked anyone to do that with him, bloody hell, he could’ve picked me, the one who actually warned him about the contest, but no, he chose you. Why you, Harry? Fake dating your best friend is not something that crosses anyone’s mind everyday, nor wanting to kiss your best friend just because you were in the mood for it. It’s obvious there’s something more to what’s going on, I bet you can feel it as well.”

Harry kept staring at Niall while he gave his mini speech, trying to gather his thoughts before he spoke again. “I don’t know, I have never thought about it. I was just trying to, you know, embrace what was offered to me while I still had it. I had made up my mind, we would go to the game and then it would be over because I know Louis would never feel the same. I didn’t mean for us to cross any line, for Louis to cross it. He was the one to suggest everything, I just went on with it and now…”

Niall gave him a pointed look. “You really thought you’d be able to act even more like a married couple for a few days and just simply stop, Harry? Don’t you know yourself? Now, it’s gonna be even worse, mate, I’m sorry to tell you, but how do you just act normally with your best friend, living with him, having to contain yourself? It was easy for you before when nothing had happened, but this really does change things, Haz.”

Harry knew Niall was right and he would be fooling himself if he thought he would be able to act like before around Louis. He just didn’t know if he was ready to put all his cards on the table for Louis to reject him, saying it was really just pretend. But what if it wasn’t? What if Niall was right about Louis liking Harry too, but scared to tell anything that would strain their friendship – because that was what Harry had been doing all along.

For now though, he would continue as if nothing was out of ordinary. Maybe he could slow down on the ‘pretending for no one’ when they were at home alone. Maybe then they could go back to normal without any awkwardness between them after the match. They had two days for that. Harry could control himself. He would try at least.

 

*

 

Louis was trying to be nonchalant. He decided that he would just keep doing what he had been doing for the past days. It was nothing much. Maybe it was really just the moment, something that would go away as soon as he and Harry went back to their just friends selves.

Though, Louis wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to how they were. He enjoyed being closer to Harry, pampering him and cuddling (snogging) him, that was the truth. And if he had an opportunity to keep surprising Harry, he decided to take it that night.

They hadn’t talked during the whole day, Louis too busy taking care of the kids and Harry spending the afternoon with Niall. Louis wasn’t sure they had anything to eat at the flat, so he just stopped by the pizza place and bought them a muzzarella one, hoping Harry would appreciate the gesture, not needing to cook anything when both of them were home.

And it was a surprise indeed when Louis arrived right after Harry to find the other boy at the kitchen placing some groceries he had just bought on the kitchen table.

“No need to worry, Harold, I come bearing the savior of all Uni students’ meal: pizza.” Louis joked as he placed the box on the table, making Harry look at him confused.

“Did we agree on pizza night?”

“Nope, but I figured we didn’t have anything to eat and why make you cook tonight if we can just enjoy these cheesy slices?” Louis smiled big at him and Harry laughed, shaking his head.

“Alright, at least we will have food for the next days with all the grocery I got,” Harry took the bags from the table to put them on the sink. “I’ll put these away and you set the table?”

“Nah, let’s make it lazy pizza night, let’s put on a movie and eat it on the couch, how about that?”

“You really want me to eat pizza and watch a movie lying on the couch? I might not want to get up after,” Harry started putting some things inside the fridge and Louis got some paper towels.

“Might have a sleepover in the living room then,” Louis moved to get a couple of glasses from the cabinet and as Harry had the fridge door open, he took the opportunity to get the bottle of Coke from there. He closed the fridge, looking at Harry with a sneaky smile and simply poked his tongue out at him.

He placed everything on top of the pizza box and headed to the living room, carrying it carefully not to drop anything on the floor. He set it all on the coffee table and turned on the telly. He quickly went to his room to leave his backpack there and take off his coat and shoes, going back to the living room to wait for Harry to join him and decide on what to watch.

They settled on Pride and Prejudice that was already on, Harry sitting on one side of the couch and Louis lying down with his feet up on his lap. They had already eaten the whole pizza and there was still more than half of the movie to go. As much as Louis loved that movie and actually loved to see Harry cry every time Darcy declared his love for Lizzie, he was starting to get a little impatient, being the hyperactive git that he was.

He started then to poke Harry on his thighs with his toes, making him slap his feet away. Louis didn’t stop, though, seeing that Harry was actually giggling every time he did so.

“Stop it, Lou, let me watch the movie!” Harry said, trying to contain his laughter.

“My feet are cold, Harold, warm them for me,” he wiggled his feet in front of Harry, which made him take them by the toes and push them far from him.

“If you wore socks, you wouldn’t be cold,” Harry quirked a brow at him and Louis opened his mouth in a faux-shocked expression.

“How dare you? Pff, why socks when I have you?” Louis had a mischievous grin on his face as he got a bit closer to Harry and tucked his feet under Harry’s jumper, making the boy complain loudly.

“Louis!” Harry looked at him outraged, putting his own leg up on the couch and started to kick Louis. “Go get some socks, for God’s sake!” he tried to sound serious, but he kept on laughing.

“Ugh, fine!” Louis puffed and got up from the couch, poking his tongue out at Harry. He went quickly to his bedroom, not even bothering to turn on the lights, walking directly to his drawer and getting any pair of socks he had there, then he left.

He returned to the couch to see Harry on his phone, not even paying attention to the movie anymore. Louis sat down and put on his socks, only then noticing that their patterns had nothing to do with each other.

“Nice fashion choice, Lou,” Harry laughed, looking up from his phone to Louis.

“Shut up, it’s comfy and they will protect me from the cold, unlike you,” he leaned against the arm of the couch again, poking Harry once again with his foot.

“I’m not saying anything! You do look good with them on, I’m not lying,” Harry smirked at him and Louis narrowed his eyes suspiciously, seeing him go back to his phone.

“Yeah, I do. Do not dare to mock my socks, Harold,” he turned to face the telly again when he felt his phone vibrate inside his trousers’ pocket briefly. He got it in his hand to see a tweet notification from Harry.

 _Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles  
_ _@Louis_Tomlinson I’m sitting on the sofa opposite to you… you look sexy._

Louis snorted with how cheesy and actually flirty that was.

“Sexy?” He questioned as he quirked a brow at Harry, who kept a smug expression on his face.

“Couldn’t say fashion, Twitter would think I’ve become a sloppy boyfriend,” Harry winked at him, laughing, and Louis rolled his eyes.

He tapped on the side of his phone thoughtfully, trying to come up with what to reply to Harry before he typed his password and opened Twitter.

He looked at Harry, paying attention to the boy in front of him. Not that he hadn’t payed any attention to him before. Louis knew how beautiful Harry was, had always been; he had an unique beauty with those green eyes of his, the dimples on his cheeks, the dark curls that bounced every time he laughed, which had just happened, even with Harry wearing that green scarf. The curls had always been Harry’s charm and Louis loved to play with them. He almost wished he was close to Harry right now, running his hand through them and massaging Harry’s scalp.

Louis took a deep breath, trying to slow down his thoughts, but knowing what to tweet back to Harry now.

 _Louis Tomlinson @Louis_Tomlinson  
_ _@Harry_Styles hahaha I am being slowly seduced by your curls_

Harry instantly opened a smile on his face, still looking down at his phone and Louis knew he had just seen the tweet. He started typing up and a few seconds later, Louis got a new notification on his phone.

 _Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles  
_ _@Louis_Tomlinson I know… That was my plan._

Louis looked up from his phone to meet Harry with a flirty smile. “Was it?”

“Of course, I know how obsessed you are with my curls,” Harry turned to Louis, speaking teasingly and putting his phone on the coffee table.

“I can’t help it, Hazza. Who isn’t in love with your curls?” Louis got into a sitting position, actually getting closer to Harry after he left his phone beside Harry’s. He could’ve stopped himself right there, just sitting beside him, but when he realized, his hand was already on Harry’s hair, playing with some curls.

Harry tilted his head into Louis’ hand, closing his eyes, and Louis started massaging the back of his head. “They are just too fun to play with,” he settled himself closer to Harry, crossing his legs on the couch and Harry leaning to rest his head on his shoulder.

“You keep going like that, I’ll sleep in a sec,” Harry said very softly.

Louis pulled Harry down with him to lie on the couch again, making Harry rest on top of his chest. “Then sleep. You gotta wake up early anyway, right? I wasn’t joking about the sleepover,” he kept on running his fingers through Harry’s hair.

“This sofa is too small for both of us, Lou,” Harry laughed faintly.

“I don’t mind, I like sleeping close to you,” Louis spoke before he could stop himself, only after realizing what he had said.

Harry moved his head up a little to look better at Louis, those green eyes a bit confused but with a soft gleam. He didn’t say anything, only nuzzled his nose against Louis’ neck up to his jaw and Louis started to feel his stomach lurch.

He lowered his head to face Harry and without even thinking, looked for Harry’s lips. He thought Harry would somehow startle at that, but he accepted Louis’ pressing lips so smoothly he could do nothing but savour the moment and deepen the kiss.

They were back at it again, alone at their flat, kissing without needing to, only because Louis felt like it. In the back of his mind, Louis knew that Harry had also meant for that to happen and fuck, what were they doing, really?

Louis couldn’t stop though; kissing Harry was the best thing he’d done in a while and just being there, lying down with him, embracing Harry and feeling Harry’s chest against him, breathing deeply every time they changed angles to make their mouths fit better, Louis was getting more convinced that the pretending was going down hill.

Neither of them were complaining, doing anything to stop it or actually talking about it either. To be honest, though, it wasn’t even getting in the way of anything – of their friendship –  but still, this wasn’t supposed to flow so naturally between them.

Something was happening and Louis couldn’t quite explain it at the moment, and if he admitted it, he didn’t want to put too much thought into it right now either. What he would do, though, was just sleep again with Harry in his arms and kissing him sweetly the way Louis had learned he liked to.

 

**Friday, February 17th**

 

Harry woke up alarmed, falling off from the couch as he tried to roll to the side to stop his alarm from going off.

Fuck, what was he doing on the living room?

“Haz? You alright?” He heard Louis’ sleepy voice and he looked up to see Louis sitting on the couch looking down at him.

Oh right. That was what happened last night, he remembered.

So much for trying to act like casual friends again.

He looked around a little lost on what was going on, his phone still ringing on top of the coffee table.

“Yeah, yeah, I forgot for a moment I was on the couch and rolled over falling on the floor. I’m alright,” he finally stretched his arm to get his phone in his hand and stop the alarm. Only then he took the living room in, noticing that the telly was still on, the pizza box left opened on the coffee table… they had literally fallen asleep kissing again, not even bothering to get up and turn everything off or even to change their clothes.

Why was this becoming a routine?

“Scared the shit out of me, Christ,” he saw Louis rubbing the back of his hand on his eyes and he wasn’t supposed to feel his stomach flutter with how soft Louis looked.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up like this. Go back to sleep, ‘s early for you,” Harry finally got on his feet, clearing his throat and looking around the mess in the living room. “You should go back to your room.”

“Naah… too sleepy to walk… gonna pass out here again,” Louis spoke through yawns, lying back down on the couch again, already closing his eyes.

Harry watched Louis’ breathing get even again and the boy had probably fallen back asleep.

Shit, Harry was screwed. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, screwed.

He wasn’t supposed to be in that situation again, he had promised that he would try to control himself and not let him and Louis get too carried away again. He thought he was being just a bit clever to flirt with Louis through Twitter, not intending for them to end up kissing again. Well, he had indulged it, but he did not expect Louis to return it so easily.

How had they gotten there when this was only supposed to be temporary, when it was only a cover up so they could watch a freaking football match together? When did it turn into him never wanting to stop kissing Louis and never wanting to go to bed without him again?

It was too much for him to handle and he couldn’t continue standing in the middle of their living room debating with himself what to make of their situation. He looked at his phone to check the time and sighed, knowing it was way too early for him to be overthinking.

He got the remote control from the telly, turning it off. He looked one last time to Louis’ sleeping figure before entering his bedroom to shower and change clothes to go to work.

It was 5:30 am when Harry finished getting ready – shower taken, breakfast already eaten, teeth brushed, only going inside his room again to get his backpack before leaving. He took the living room in one more time, realizing he didn’t even remember to clean it. He also didn’t have time to do that anymore, Louis would have to do it when he’d wake up.

Louis. Who was sleeping on the couch with his last night’s clothes, unmatching socks, his soft hair all messy over his head – Harry remembering how he had been the one to do that. He breathed heavily as he crouched next to the couch and fetched a notebook from inside his backpack, getting a blank sheet from there and fumbling inside the bag to find a pen. When he got one in hand, he wrote down a note to remind Louis to put away the rubbish and clean the glasses, and also to go to the BBC to retrieve their tickets, placing it next to Louis’ phone.

Before he got to his feet, he turned to look at Louis one more time and he almost wanted to wake him up again and have the conversation he was dreading they should have – while he was in the shower, he had decided they would have to talk, soon enough. He realized they shouldn’t keep acting like they were if they were to simply stop it in a few days. Either they would have to call it off before Harry had a breakdown or Harry would have to finally have the guts to tell Louis how he felt and ask Louis what the hell he thought they were doing.

Instead, he did something he knew he would regret later, but as they hadn’t discussed anything yet, he couldn’t blame himself for still wanting to play the fake boyfriend part.

He got his phone in hand, opened the camera and leaned closer to Louis’ face, his calm breathing never changing its pace. He then kissed Louis on the cheek, which make him stir a bit, but not waking up, and he quickly snapped a photo.

It probably looked a bit creepy to take a picture of Louis sleeping but he had only one more day to take advantage of what they were doing and to post something on Twitter to keep up the appearances – before he tried to talk to Louis to settle what was going on between them.

He then stood up and walked to the door, stopping before it for a moment there to compose his first tweet that morning with their photo.

 _Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles  
_ _Going to work and leaving this one on the sofa ‘cause he’s just too sleepy to go to his own bed. @Louis_Tomlinson_

Harry finally left their flat, a bit later than usual to catch the bus to go to Susie’s, but there wasn’t any real problem in arriving 10 minutes later, because at 6 am, he was the only one there and the bakery only started working at 7 anyway.

He started his working day as usual, turning on the ovens and also the radio, getting ready to start on the pastries and to listen to Nick Grimshaw, trying to distract himself from thoughts of Louis and how they had let themselves get carried away like that – how Harry had been stupid enough to start with a bit of a harmless joke and end up falling even more in love than he thought was possible.

“Tina, I’m kinda sad today,” Nick spoke as the bakery had already opened for the customers and Harry was serving a lady with some fresh croissants. “Our Valentine’s day week is over, we have only one prize to giveaway today.”

“Aw, Nick, you’re gonna miss talking about your lovely couples?”

“Of course I will, it was too much fun to follow their lives for a bit. Specially now, when things were starting to get more interesting,” Nick laughed.

“How so?”

“All the couples were really adorable this week, but you know I have a soft spot for Louis and Harry right? I felt like a real matchmaker on Monday, so I followed them pretty closely these past few days and just last night, when I thought they would start getting all sweet tweeting each other, it got really flirtatious! Not to mention Harry’s tweet this morning, all sad to leave Louis sleeping on the couch. I’m gonna miss their daily exchanges. I’m not saying I’ll promise not to snoop on them anymore, but I might just do it to make sure love is still alive.”

Harry had to breathe deeply at that as he received the change from the croissant lady, because no, Nick couldn’t snoop on them after the match. Harry couldn’t keep doing it further than that.

“But! We still have one more couple to get to know today,” Nick continued, “and you know what you have to do if you want to get some tickets to watch the Brits next week. 8 am is almost here, so stay tuned. Now Tina, we have some brand new music to present, right?”

“Oh yes! Another one of Ed’s new tunes from his album that is coming out in a few weeks!”

“Ed has been nothing but a hit on the radio, with both Castle On the Hill and Shape of You released last month, and now he has this new one that has just been out for a few hours on the internet. This is How Would You Feel, brand new stuff on new music Friday from Ed Sheeran.”

That was a very calm and different song from the ones Ed had released previously. It was a ballad and Harry started paying attention to the lyrics as he cleaned the counter.

_You are the one, girl, you know that it's true_

_I'm feeling younger every time that I'm alone with you_

_We were sitting in a parked car, stealing kisses in a front yard_

_We got questions we shouldn't had asked but_

_How would you feel if I told you I loved you  
_

_It's just something that I want to do_

_I'm taking my time, spending my life falling deeper in love with you_

_So tell me that you love me too_

It was like he had written those lyrics himself about how he felt about Louis and fuck, he didn’t want to stop and go back to being just friends. What he really wanted was to know if Louis was open to any possibility of them being a couple for real and how would he feel to know that Harry had always been in love with him.

He would have to wait though, because he couldn’t tell Louis everything he wanted right now as he was working, or in the afternoon when they were in class and neither at night while they were at Josh’s party. Probably the best time to do that would be after the match anyway.

So now all Harry had to do was wait and pray they could come clean with themselves soon enough.

 

*

 

“Isn’t Harry coming?” Zayn asked as he handed Louis a beer bottle.

He had arrived at Josh’s flat not even 5 minutes before, trying to find his friends as he had come alone.

“He is, he just got caught up talking to his teacher after class and told me to come first since he still had to shower and get ready,” Louis accepted the beer, already drinking from it.

“Are you guys alright?” Zayn had a concerned look and Louis didn’t understand why. He hadn’t mentioned what had happened last night to any of them, much less his constant confusing thoughts and feelings for Harry.

“Yep, of course we are, what are you on about?”

Zayn shrugged, drinking his beer. “Just wondering why you slept on the couch last night. Had your first fake boyfriend fight?”

Louis could notice the mocking tone in his voice and he slapped Zayn on the head, “Fuck off, Malik,” he laughed, “It’s– no, we hm, I fell asleep watching a movie on the couch, that was it.”

Zayn raised a brow at him, but didn’t say anything, continuing to sip from his beer as they walked to the living room of Josh’s flat and sat down on the couch that was luckily free.

There wasn’t a lot of people there, as the flat wasn’t even much bigger than the one Louis and Harry had. There was already music playing though, some people standing up, having their pints, and the place decorated with some pink and red hearts plastered on the walls. Yeah, Josh really didn’t miss on the Valentine’s Day decoration he promised.

Eventually, Niall and Liam joined them on the couch, and they were just talking, joking around and drinking more as a few other people arrived, among them Harry.

“Hey,” he approached their group with a large smile on his face.

Louis hadn’t been nervous until that moment. Not even when he woke up that morning at dawn because Harry had fallen off from the couch, or because he had felt Harry giving him a kiss on the cheek, or when he went to the BBC in the morning to finally have their pair of tickets for the match the next day (the!!! next!!!! day!!!!! GO RED DEVILS!), or after when he finally let it sink in that he wasn’t just kissing Harry because they were fake dating.

(There was absolutely nothing platonic about daydreaming once or twice or the whole day about kissing your best friend while pressing him against the wall, or while cuddling on the couch, or, you know. Possibilities.)

That didn’t make him as nervous as he was now, right at the party, uncertain on how they should behave towards each other, if Harry would keep paying attention to him as his (fake) boyfriend or if he would just drift away, mingling and flirting with the rest of the party as he usually did.

“Hello, young Harold,” Niall saluted him from where he was sitting on the arm of the couch next to Louis and Harry laughed. “Let me grab a pint for you, ain’t no party with no booze for you,” Niall got up almost tripping on his feet.

“Is he already this drunk? How long has the party been going on?” Harry took Niall’s place and looked down at Louis, staring at him for a second before he leaned down and kissed him on the cheek.

Oh right, yeah, they had to greet each other in front of everyone, of course.

“Mate, he has probably been drinking since he woke up. You know, Irish and all, if there is a party, he starts it himself,” Liam replied to Harry from the other arm of the couch.

Harry laughed and Louis felt him putting his hand around his shoulder – and why was that making him feel so nervous? That was all they had been doing for the last 5 days. It wasn’t different, but now, he just couldn’t control his body from amplifying Harry’s touch on him.

Niall returned with not just a beer for Harry, but a freaking cocktail with a colorful straw and those tiny umbrellas.

“Right, but before you receive your drink, lemme take a picture of you two like this! First party as boyfriends together! People have to see it!” Niall handed Zayn Harry’s glass at the same time he tried to get his phone from his pocket and Louis thought he was about to fall on top of all of them and drop the drink.

Niall managed not to fall nor drop the drink for their luck. “C’mon, be cute!” He asked as he placed the phone in front of Louis and Harry, which made both of them laugh. Louis then felt Harry properly embracing him, arms going around his back and his waist and then him placing a kiss on his cheek. Louis smiled, bottle of beer in hand, trying to make his usual pose of pointing his finger at Harry.

“Beautiful!” Niall exclaimed as the flash went off. “Now you can get your drinks! I mean, Harry can get his drink. If you want more beer, you go get it, Tommo.” Niall didn’t even wait Zayn to hand him the glass back, already taking it from his hand and almost shoving it in Harry’s face. He had to untangle his arms quickly from Louis to grab it and not let it spill all over himself.

“Why’s Harry the only one with special treatment here?” Louis asked, watching Harry take his first sip from the cocktail.

“‘Cause he got caught up in your mess Louis, he deserves to get wasted,” Niall was fastly typing on his phone. Louis ignored Niall’s rude comment (because if he remembered it correctly, Niall was the one who started all of this) to pay attention to all of their phones going off with a notification on the groupchat with the photo and then Louis noticing a Twitter notification from Niall.

 _Niall Horan @NiallOfficial  
_ _Fookdas cute’nnn and it inly took 10@ yyeras !!!nnn @Harry_Styles @Louis_Tomlinson_

Drunk tweeting Niall was always a blessing, making both Harry and Louis laugh at the tweet with the photo attached.

Louis quickly forgot whatever Niall had said before as they kept talking, laughing  and drinking.

“Did you get the tickets, Lou?” Harry asked as he drank from his cocktail.

“Yep, it was pretty fast to go there and get them just before class. I was wishing to bump into Grimshaw and thank him in person, but I just got as far as the front door desk,” Louis pouted before drinking his beer.

“You guys excited for the match tomorrow?” Liam asked enthusiastically.

“Please, wear those matchy Manchester United jerseys you have,” Niall added, “it’s so ridiculous you made a customized one with your names on the back, fucking sappy.”

“Of course we will,” Louis laughed, “that’s the perfect opportunity. Hazza has been waiting to wear those to a match since we got them,” Louis pinched Harry on the cheek, making him laugh and  reply with a “yep”.

“All that would’ve taken for people to think you guys were dating was just wear those in public. There wasn’t even the need to pretend this whole week,” Zayn teased, winking at Louis and he  answered by flipping him off as the others laughed.

Louis finished another bottle of beer, asking the boys if they wanted more and only Liam replied with a yes, so he headed to the kitchen to grab two more beers.

He noticed the place was filled with more people and he could recognise some who studied with him and the other lads too, greeting them as he walked back from the kitchen and when he returned to the living room, he found only Zayn at the couch.

“Where’s everyone? Liam asked for his beer and fucked off?”

“His crush arrived, so he’s now walking around her like a puppy,” Zayn rolled his eyes, “and Niall and Harry left to talk with Sandy and Jon,” he pointed to a corner of the flat, where Louis could see the four of them standing up and talking.

“Ah, right,” he opened his beer and drank a long sip, giving Zayn the other bottle, “Are you gonna take this one? Liam won’t be back for a while if he’s with Sophs, so if you don’t take it, I’ll drink later,” he said without taking his eyes from where Harry and Niall were.

Zayn only answered no as he still had one bottle with him and Louis could feel Zayn watching him with a questioning expression.

It would be considered rude to stare at them like that, but Louis didn’t really care about what others thought. For all people knew, he was Harry’s boyfriend and he could look at him all he wanted. He didn’t want to seem like the overbearing boyfriend, but seeing Harry was all smiley and giggly, drinking and talking with others that weren’t Louis left him on an unexpected and very unwelcomed edge. He tried to stay on his lane, talking to Zayn and his other friends, sipping more of his beer to distract his thoughts away from curls and dimples.

Steve and Luke were chatting with Louis and Zayn after a while, taking Louis’ attention from Harry for some minutes. When he searched for Harry around the room again, he noticed he wasn’t where he had last seen him anymore.

“Have you guys seen Harry?” He asked, not minding if he was interrupting what they were saying or not.

“Mate, I think I saw him going to the kitchen with Jon,” Steve replied and Louis quickly finished off his beer and got up from the couch.

It was not that Louis was desperate to know what Harry was doing, but he just didn’t want to think about him being alone with anyone else.

He also shouldn’t have gotten up from the couch so quickly, because only then he noticed how dizzy he was from the all the beer he had been drinking.

His head swirled a little as he walked the small path to the kitchen, only to find Harry holding the fridge door open as Jon looked for something inside it. He quietly stepped closer to Harry from behind, throwing his arm around his waist, standing on his tiptoes to rest his head on Harry’s shoulder.

“Hey you,” he spoke very low at Harry’s ear, Harry abruptly trying to turn around, almost knocking them both on the floor. Louis gave a step back to get balance, still not letting go of Harry, making him face him now and without even thinking, Louis pressed his lips on Harry’s.

He felt Harry freeze under his touch for a moment, but then give in into the kiss, their tongues briefly meeting and then he distanced himself.

“Whoa there, what was that?” Harry laughed, a little lost.

“Was looking for you,” Louis smiled at him.

“Josh said there was more vodka somewhere around here, but I think people drank all of it already,” Jon said, closing the fridge door to look at Harry again, only to find Louis holding him, “Oh, sorry, Louis, didn’t see you here, mate. You want something? Another beer?”

“Could do with another beer, yeah,” Louis answered, not giving Jon too much attention and looked back at Harry, “were you going to drink anything?”

“No, I’m good. Jon was the one asking for vodka anyway. I just came here to help him look for it. You sure you’ll take another beer?” Harry narrowed his eyes at Louis.

Louis probably knew that he had his drunk face already, but he didn’t care.

He simply shrugged and got the bottle that Jon was already offering him.

“Lou, we have to get up a bit earlier tomorrow, remember?” Harry was looking at him concerned now.

“I’m not that bad, Harold, but don’t worry, this will be the last one, ok? Come with me now?” Louis took him by the hand without even waiting for an answer. “Thanks for the beer, Jon, see ya around.” Louis started pulling Harry along outside the kitchen.

Harry had only time to say a quick “see ya” to Jon as he followed Louis to the couch, luckily empty again.

“Lou, you alright? You want something?” Harry asked as they sat down. Louis uncapped the beer, drinking from it and smiling at Harry.

“I’m ok, just wanted to have some solo time with you, you know, to play the lovely boyfriend role,” he spoke the last part in a lower tone, “we haven’t spent much time together, people might start talking,” he knew he was talking rubbish, his already dizzy mind making him say things he wasn’t supposed to.

“Ok?” Harry laughed slightly, “I hope you were serious when you said this would be the last one, ‘cause I don’t think I’ll be able to carry you home if you pass out here.”

“I’m not that drunk, Haz, me head’s fuzzy a bit, but it’s alright,” Louis got closer to Harry, embracing him with a hand around his waist, “just want to stay here quiet for a while, with you,” he nuzzled his head on Harry’s chest, drinking from his beer again.

“Alright, no more booze for you,” Harry took the bottle from his hand and placed it on the floor. “You wanna head home now?”

Louis distance himself a bit from Harry, pouting at him. “Stop being a party pooper, Haz,” he put one hand on Harry’s face, bring him closer again and kissing him on the cheek. “I’m ok, just gotta stay here for a few minutes until the swirling stops and we can head home, ok? I know we have to go back earlier, don’t worry. Now be a good boyfriend and cuddle me.” Louis embraced Harry again and looked for his lips, pecking on them quickly.

“You are impossible,” Harry spoke against Louis’ lips, making Louis smile a bit and then break apart, resting his head on his shoulder, closing his eyes.

“Nah, I’m very possible,” Louis laughed at his own lame drunk joke. He felt Harry kissing the top of his head, bringing Louis closer to him.

He didn’t know how long he spent with his eyes closed, only feeling Harry run his hand up and down his arm, his breath rhythmic in his chest, the music playing in the background as he smelled Harry’s cologne and nuzzled his nose against Harry’s neck.

“You smelling good,” Louis spoke, voice a bit sleepy.

“Guess it’s time to go home now, right?” Harry looked down at Louis with a teasing smile on his lips. “C’mon Lou, you’re practically sleeping on me. Let’s get going.”

Louis grunted as Harry got up from the couch and made him stand up too. His head was a bit slow but he wasn’t as dizzy as he had been before. He could walk properly, but still, he held onto Harry’s arm as they walked past the people inside the flat.

Zayn, Niall, Liam and Sophia were close to the door when they left so they were able to tell them their proper goodbyes, leaving the flat and getting outside on the street, facing the cold February wind.

“You ok to walk?” Harry asked as Louis kept clinging onto his arm.

“Yup, I’m fine, but just keep holding me hand just to make sure I don’t fall,” Louis laughed as Harry squeezed his hand and made they continue walking.

Josh’s flat was a 5 minute walk from their own building, so while they walked, the chill wind on Louis’ face helped him sober up a bit. His head wasn’t helping much, though, slowly drifting away in a thought or two, but he was glad they stepped inside their home only a few minutes later.

“Your head’s still bad?” Harry asked as he closed the door, taking off his shoes as Louis simply headed to the couch and plopped there face down.

“Ugh, yes.You might’ve been right, shouldn’t have taken that last beer.”

“Go to bed, Lou. I’ll get you a glass of water and some painkillers for tomorrow, ok?” Harry’s voice came from the kitchen and Louis grunted again, dreading getting up but doing so.

He walked to his room, kicking off his shoes and taking off his coat and jumper, keeping his white t-shirt on and changing from his jeans to his sweatpants. He then got into bed, under the duvet already just in time for Harry to enter the room. He didn’t turn on the lights and walked carefully to sit on the other side of Louis’ bed, handing him a glass of water and putting the pill on the nightstand.

“Thanks,” he said, as he drank from the glass.

“Next time, try not drinking too many beers one after the other like this,” Louis saw Harry shaking his head as he took the glass from Louis and put it on his night stand. Louis settled down on the mattress, resting his head against the pillow.

“Good thing you were there to make me stop then,” Louis replied, closing his eyes.

“Yeah, and I’m always here to cure your hangovers too. Now, get some sleep and try to wake up on time,” Harry motioned to get up from the bed but Louis was quick to open his eyes again and hold him by the arm.

“Haz, please, stay here,” he said very low, “come cuddle me, you always give me good drunk cuddles.”

“Lou,” Harry shook his head and tried to get up again, “I’m stinking of booze, I need to change, I’m not–” Louis stopped him again, holding him tighter.

“Please, Hazza, yesterday we slept with our clothes on, c’mon. I’m stinking too and here I am under the covers. Just lie down, please,” he pouted and he didn’t know if in the dark it would have any effect on Harry. He tried to put on his best needy tone and it seemed to work, Harry murmuring a “fine” and starting to take off his coat.

“Good,” Louis let go of Harry to give him space to lie on the bed.

“Good?” Harry lay under the duvet on his side facing Louis, his hand under his head on the pillow.

“Yes, better,” Louis smiled and his hand searched for Harry’s waist to hold him close.

“You are so needy and clingy, God,” Harry shook his head, wiggling on the bed to get closer to Louis.

“Sorry I was too clingy at the party,” Louis said, squeezing Harry’s waist.

“Nah, it’s alright, Lou, too much beer and you, uh, just wanted to…” Harry cleared his throat and Louis moved his head closer to his.

“To make people believe we are actually dating, yeah,” he finished the sentence for Harry, “but still, I always make too much of a scene when I’m a bit tipsy,” he tried to shrug.

“A bit?” Harry laughed and Louis kicked him under the covers, tangling their feet together. “Ouch, stop it,” Harry complained jokingly.

“Yeah, only a bit, Harold,” Louis teased, getting his face even closer now, “I couldn’t help myself, sorry, I should’ve…”

“No, Lou, really, it was nothing. We’re just doing what we agreed,” Louis could feel Harry breathing deeply.

“I should’ve back down, though, but...” Louis tried to move one of his legs to rest between Harry’s, their faces practically glued together, noses touching. Louis lazily started searching for Harry’s lips.

“Lou, I don’t think…” Harry distanced his head a bit and Louis stopped, eyes too alarmed looking at Harry. Fuck, had he gone too far now? Had they actually hit the too awkward, too uncomfortable stage they kept saying that wasn’t going to happen? Louis needed to know though, he needed to know if he should back down for real, if he and Harry accidentally hooking up was just a fluke or if it was more, if for Harry it was more than just pretending too.

“Is this uncomfortable, Haz? Is this too much?” Louis asked earnestly, no teasing and no hidden intention in his voice. He just needed the truth to know where he and Harry stood now.

Harry took a few seconds looking at Louis in the eye, not even blinking.

He inhaled deeply and licked his lips before he spoke. “No,” and closed the distance between themselves, the hand resting under his face going to Louis’ hair and the other to his waist.

Louis bit on Harry’s lower lip, making him part his mouth open, quickly searching for his tongue. He held Harry tightly by the waist, his leg now completely between Harry’s, not even an inch of distance between them.

This kiss was different.

All the others had been sweet and soft. This one, Louis could feel the urge to feel Harry firing up under his skin, to completely have Harry giving him what he wanted. It was heavy, hasted and heated, tongues licking on each other, Harry’s hand gripping firmly on Louis’ locks and Louis’ hand on Harry’s waist, slowly going down – hips, arse, thigh, _cock_ , maping out every small quiver he felt from the body underneath it. Just the thought of what was about to happen aroused him even more, making his touches surer, bolder.

“Fuck, Harry,” he broke the kiss, pushing Harry slightly to lay back down on the mattress, quickly positioning himself on top of him, kicking off the duvet covering them and kissing him again, briefly, going from his lips to his jaw and down his neck.

Harry’s hand ran from Louis’ waist to his back, and the one pulling at the hair at the back of his neck, roughly scratching the exposed skin there.

“Louis, I’ve want– oh,” Harry tried to speak but his voice disappeared as soon as Louis rubbed his hand against his hard on.

“Tell me again, Harry, is this too much? Is this not ok?” Louis kissed the side of Harry’s neck, nibbling softly there.

“This is very much, fuck.... ok” Harry sighed pleased, hands giving a cheeky grab on Louis’ bum, bringing their crotches closer before sliding underneath his t-shirt, scratching the skin.

Louis grinded down against Harry, rolling his hips as he kissed Harry on the mouth and Harry didn’t waste time to start biting and sucking on Louis’ lip, trying to lift Louis’ t-shirt at the same time.

Louis’ hand on Harry’s hips moved under his jumper, scratching slighty at the skin on his belly, which made Harry moan loudly inside Louis’ mouth and jerk his hips forward.

Louis broke the kiss to lift himself from Harry and take off his t-shirt. He saw Harry looking at him with lustful eyes and he smirked at himself, throwing his t-shirt on the floor and quickly reaching down to take Harry’s jumper off.

“I’m gonna ask you again, Harry, because I don’t wanna do anything you don’t want to. I want you to want this as much as I do,” he asked, holding the hem of Harry’s jumper. “Are we good? Is this ok? This isn’t uncomfortable, right?”

“Christ, Louis, you have no fucking idea,” Harry led both his hands to Louis’ neck, bringing Louis’ forehead to rest against his. “I fucking want you, so much. The only uncomfortable thing will be to stop this right now.”

Louis felt his chest flutter and a shiver go down his spine when Harry kissed him again with intent. His previous dizziness seemed to have disappeared between one of Harry’s touches and the other, leaving him drunk solely by how Harry was handling him.

“Good, ‘cause this is exactly what I have in mind too,” Louis finally lifted Harry’s jumper along with his t-shirt up his chest, Harry helping him take it off completely.

Louis traced the tattoos on Harry’s chest with his index fingers, going from the swallows to the ones on his left arm, pressing his thumb on Harry’s Hi tattoo.

“We are so fucking stupid,” he giggled, kissing Harry on the cheek, then on his lips again, tangling one hand on Harry’s curls.

“The most stupids,” Harry laughed, breaking the kiss and looking at Louis’ right forearm beside him, placing a kiss on Louis’ Oops tattoo.

Louis realized now how dumb he had been all those years. Clearly you don’t get freaking matchy tattoos with your best friend of the first words you had said to each other ten years after you met. Louis remembered very well how that day at the park, he approached a young Harry wearing a Manchester United jersey, only to say hi to him and being greeted with a ball to his stomach and an oops in apology.

He didn’t know that would make them best friends for life; he didn’t know that was probably the beginning of him loving Harry. He indeed loved Harry, but the thing was that now, kissing him down his chest, tracing down his torso to his belly, getting to taste his salty and sweaty skin, Louis was starting to understand that his love for Harry was more than just a platonic friendly kind of love. It was the kind of love that made Louis want to share a life with Harry, to be his home.

He had been pretty naive to believe that their fake dating would lead to nothing. He didn’t choose Harry just because. He understood now why the first kiss they shared had been so right and why all the others that followed felt like they clicked together. It was because they did, probably always have, only Louis was too blind to realize what he had all along. And Louis wanted nothing more than to do it properly with Harry, finally have his way with him when he could’ve done it a long time ago, if Harry’s eagerness and desperation in kissing Louis was anything to go by.

Louis stopped at Harry’s navel, noticing how huge his bulge was. He looked up at Harry, to see him biting on his lip.

“Haz, can I?” Louis asked, index finger playing with the button of Harry’s jeans.

“Please, Lou,” Harry closed his eyes, nodding and Louis didn’t hesitate to unbutton Harry’s trouser, bringing it down along with his briefs, to reveal his hard on.

He had to stop a second as he took off  Harry’s jeans completely to take in what was in front of him. It was not that they hadn’t seen each other naked before, but Louis had never seen Harry so exposed and inviting at the same time.

He quickly went back to the bed, kneeling on the mattress as he settled his head between Harry’s legs on his crotch and slowly started kissing Harry’s length, from base to head until he started licking over his slit and finally took Harry in his mouth.

Harry’s hands went straight to Louis’ shoulder blades, squeezing him tightly, probably leaving red marks on Louis’ skin. It only encouraged Louis to suck harder on Harry, bobbing his head up and down, getting to taste Harry’s precome inside his mouth. He opened his eyes to watch the view in front of him, Harry with his mouth hanging open and eyes closed, whimpering with each swirl of Louis’ tongue on his cock.

Louis noticed how fast Harry was already breathing and if that was Harry already building up his orgasm with just Louis’ mouth on him, he only imagined how Harry would look like with Louis inside of him. His own cock throbbed inside his joggers and he knew he needed that right now.

He stopped blowing Harry off with a last suck on the head and at that Harry opened his eyes widely.

“Louis, please, don’t stop, it’s so good, I’m almost–”

“I know,” he cut him off, giving him a teasing smile, “and I want to see you come so beautifully for me, but I need to see that with me inside of you.”

Louis saw the moment Harry stopped breathing, hand squeezing even more tightly at his shoulder, making it hurt a bit.

“Fuck, Louis, please, just need you now, more than anything.” Harry rolled his hips upward in front of Louis’ face.

“Can you hold yourself for a little longer? Wanna make you feel good, Haz, gonna make you feel good for me,” Louis kissed the tip of his cock quickly and got off the bed, taking off his joggers and pants, leaving them on the floor as he reached for the nightstand drawer to get a condom and his lube. He went back to bed, lying on top of Harry again, leaving the lube and condom nearby.

One of his hands started caressing his cheek as he slowly kissed Harry’s mouth again. The other went to Harry’s thigh, smoothly going up and down, moving to the inner side, reaching for Harry’s balls and then tracing his arse crack with his finger.

“Lou, don’t tease, please,” Harry broke the kiss, one of his hands going to Louis’ cock, tugging it slightly.

“Fuck, Harry, _you_ don’t fucking tease me like this,” Louis laughed as he distanced himself and got the lube in his hand, spreading it on his fingers.

He returned to kiss Harry again as he threw the bottle on the floor, then went down on his neck, sucking and biting there as he pushed a finger inside Harry.

There was a stretched moan in return and Louis felt really pleased to know that he was doing that to Harry. He fingered Harry in and out slowly, feeling his hole clench against his finger. He then inserted another finger, moving the kisses from Harry’s neck to his jawline up to his ear nibbling on his earlobe.

Harry enveloped his arm around Louis’ shoulder, bringing him even closer, chests bumping and hard cocks rubbing against each other as they were dry humping in the rhythm of Louis’ finger in and out of him.

“Christ, Louis, please, I can’t hold much longer, need your cock,” Harry spoke, voice already needy.

Louis slowly pulled his finger from inside Harry, eyes not leaving Harry’s as he briefly took hold of Harry’s cock, pumping it with his lubed fingers.

“Louis, you prick, just fuck me already,” Harry begged and Louis smiled smugly, kissing him again briefly. He turned and put on a condom, then settled himself better on top of Harry, finding the perfect position to angle himself inside of him. He supported himself on the mattress with his other arm beside Harry’s head, fingers slightly tangling on Harry’s curls as he slowly bottomed out.

“No need to beg, love,” Louis said, biting at the side of Harry’s neck as he started moving inside him. Both Harry’s hands were now holding his arse roughly, helping Louis thrusts, rolling his hips along with Louis’. “Fuck, Harry,” his lips moved to Harry’s mouth again, kissing him as Harry ran his hands on his back and his legs locked around Louis’ thighs, heels pressing against them to make Louis push further.

“C’mon, Lou, I’m so close,” Harry moved his head to kiss Louis’ neck, hands all over his back, going down to Louis’ bum and squeezing it firmly. It was Louis’ time to moan loudly now, squirming a bit and finding another angle inside Harry. “Right there, Lou, please, fuck me right there,” Harry praised him, one hand sliding down between them and Louis noticed he was about to jerk off himself.

“No, let me do it,” his hand holding Harry’s thigh moved to grab his cock, squeezing it along with Harry’s hand. He gripped harder at Harry’s hair, thrusting deeper, jerking Harry off in the same rhythm. “Come for me, Haz,” he lifted his head a bit to look at Harry’s debauched expression, eyes shut firmly, his curls damped with sweat on his forehead. He led both his hand up to hold Louis’ face by the side, his legs letting go of Louis’ and pressing his heels down on the mattress.

“Fuck, Louis, yeah, I will, you’re fucking me so good, do it harder, please, I need to feel you,” he brought Louis’ face closer to his and slotted their mouths together and with that, Louis pumped his cock one more time and Harry moaned inside his mouth, shivering under him.

Louis felt Harry’s warm come spread on his hand, making him thrust a few more times, searching for his own relief and pleasure as he felt his orgasm picking up, blissed with the feeling of having Harry around him.

He panted against Harry’s mouth, his hand letting go of Harry’s cock and pressing hard against one of Harry’s thighs as he felt his come fill up the condom, his eyes rolling back at the pleasantness of his relief.

Harry broke the kiss, releasing Louis from his hold, letting Louis pliant body rest against him.

“Haz, Harry, fuck,” Louis pulled out from him, pecking on Harry’s lips. “I never– fuck, could never imagine this,” he rolled over on his back on the mattress breathlessly, taking off the condom, tying it and throwing it somewhere on the floor.

Harry turned to lie on his side, an arm enveloping Louis’ by the waist. “That was actually unexpected,” he laughed slightly against Louis’ neck.

“I figure we took things too far this time,” Louis turned to face Harry too, supporting his head with his hand. “But to be honest, I’m too worn out to even care right now. You wrecked me, Harry.”

Harry was looking deeply inside Louis’ eyes, licking his lips before he broke the distance and quickly sealed their lips, “I got fucked and you are the wrecked one?”

“That’s just how good this was, Haz,” Louis pressed his thumb on one of Harry’s dimple as he smiled. “I don’t– I don’t know what to say, I just… I didn’t think I wanted this, this much before. I didn’t know you wanted it too and now we have and–”

Harry placed a hand on Louis’ cheek, kissing his lips again, shutting him up. “We don’t need to talk about this right now, ok? We’re tired and sleepy and a bit drunk still, and I don’t think this is the right time to have this conversation. It’s too much at the same time. Can we just sleep and figure this out tomorrow?”

Harry’s voice was calm and collected, fond eyes looking at Louis.

“Yes,” Louis nodded, quickly pressing his lips against Harry’s again. “But just for the record,” he spoke, wrapping his arms around Harry, bringing their bodies closer. “I don’t regret it,” he confessed, kissing Harry on the cheek.

Harry had a bashful smile on his lips, returning the kiss on Louis’ cheek and turning around on his other side to rest his back against Louis’ chest.

“Me neither,” he spoke, curling up against Louis’ embrace.

Louis took a deep breath and kissed the back of Harry’s neck, inhaling his scent, smelling of sweet faded cologne and sex, and he swore he could sleep next to that smell everyday.

 

**Saturday, February 18th**

 

Louis didn’t think he would wake up on the next day feeling so rested. Opening his eyes and seeing a head full of dark curls in front of him, his arms wrapped around Harry’s naked body, only made him realize there was no other place he’d rather be – forgetting all about his slightly drunk state and remembering how good he had felt with Harry. If kissing Harry had already awaken something inside Louis, going to bed and having sex with him made Louis have one of the biggest revelations of his life.

There was no way for them to go back to the way they used to be – just friends – after what happened.

And as Louis slowly started pressing his lips to the back of Harry’s neck, he decided he didn’t want it to be only a friend with benefits with him. The feeling growing inside his chest as Harry lowly moaned with Louis pampering kisses was more than just sexual arousal. It was the feeling that Louis always felt whenever he was near Harry – the feeling that his life didn’t make sense without him. Only now it made Louis’ heart hurt with the thought that he didn’t know if Harry would want that with him too, if just their friendship was enough for him.

Louis already loved Harry, that he had no doubt, but now he was falling in love with him and it terrified him how it took them pretending to be dating for it to dawn on him that, that was all he wanted. It had always been Harry, he was sure of it and he couldn’t believe how he just didn’t see it before.

They should definitely talk about it, but Louis was now too lazy to start any deep conversation and they would soon have to wake up to get ready and go to their match.

Louis felt Harry squeezing his arms around him and then he turned around to face Louis.

“Morning,” he said with a sleepy drunk voice.

“Did I wake you?” Louis smiled down at him, kissing the tip of his nose.

“Not really, might’ve been awake for just a few minutes before you tried to wake me up,” Harry giggled with a teasing smile on his lips.

“I was not trying to wake you up, not really, I just…” Louis didn’t know what to say, or how to explain himself. Did he really have to explain why holding Harry close to him and having Harry’s warm body pressed against him made him want to shower Harry with the most sweet gestures?

Harry pressed his lips against Louis’, both hands holding him by the cheeks.

“I’d love to stay here and just cuddle you, but I guess we have to get up and go to the match? And maybe also talk about what happened?” Harry distanced himself a bit, looking at Louis with expectant green eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s best, sorry,” Louis shrugged slightly in apology, kissing Harry on the cheek. “What time is it anyway? I think we might have forgotten to set our alarms,” he untangled himself from Harry, turning on the bed trying to find his phone on the nightstand where he had put it last night before he got into bed – before Harry got into bed with him. He grabbed the phone in his hands, looking mindlessly at his bedroom, the window covered by the curtains not really helping him to guess the time with only a soft light coming inside. “It doesn’t loo– HOLY SHIT!” He sat abruptly as he pressed the home button on his phone to see it was already almost 11:30 am.

“What?” Harry sat beside him too, looking confused at Louis.

“HAROLD, GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED, WE’RE SO BLOODY LATE!” Louis yelled as he pushed the covers away from him.

“What?! Louis, what time is it?” Harry moved to sit on the edge of the bed as Louis got up, rushing to his dresser.

“We have 30 minutes until the game starts, Harry, hurry the fuck up!” Louis looked for his Manchester United jersey and a clean pair of jeans and briefs, getting them in hand and turning around to see Harry looking at him alarmed.

“Shit, Lou!” Harry got up and walked closer to Louis, “I… I thought we’d wake up early and talk and–”

“Fuck, yeah, I’d love to chat too but if we don’t hurry up, we will miss the match and all of this will have been for nothing.” Louis sighed deeply, “Just, let’s get ready. We’ll figure this out after. Fucking hell, I can’t believe I’m the one telling you to get ready, just go go,” Louis turned around quickly, heading to his bathroom.

He didn’t want to leave Harry like that, standing naked in the middle of his room. Yeah, they would have to talk. Louis wanted that as much as Harry seemed to, but they managed to oversleep despite their planning for an early morning – but well, they also didn’t plan to end up in bed together, so there’s that, and now they were so late Louis didn’t realize how rude he had been to Harry.

He didn’t mean to and he would make sure he clarified that to Harry later – clarified everything to Harry, actually. After. After he got ready in record time, after they got to the stadium and after the match. Louis would not miss a Manchester United and Arsenal game. And he wouldn’t let him and Harry miss it or not enjoy it the way Louis had imagined all along – as that had been the reason for all that had happened that week.

 

*

 

Harry didn’t have time to even get mad at Louis, realizing that it was the pressure of being late that made him dismiss Harry’s attempt to have a talk. They were actually pretty late and there was nothing Harry could do but wait for them to be calmer and alone again to talk about what happened last night, about what had happened the whole week, to be more precise.

Because now Harry was almost sure that Louis wasn’t just pretending with him anymore – Louis hadn’t kissed him for show or because he wanted to practice. The way Louis had Harry last night wasn’t just a casual sex thing. Louis said he didn’t regret it, he said he didn’t know he wanted it _that much_. Louis had wanted Harry and Harry was ready to tell him that he did as well, all along, for a long time. And he hoped Louis would still want him the next day, any other day and for as long as he could.

There wasn’t just enough time to talk about it, though. They would have to race against the clock to get ready and arrive at the stadium in time for the game.

As Louis left the bathroom (the fastest Harry had ever seen him take a shower), Harry headed to get ready too. He took a very quick shower, washing away the night before, and put on black skinny jeans along with his Manchester United jersey, wrapping his scarf around his head and leaving his room with a coat and sunglasses in hand less than 10 minutes later.

Surprisingly, Louis was already waiting for him in the living room, with his matching jersey on, a beanie on his head and also coat on one arm, holding his phone, and two bananas in his other hand.

“That’s all we have time for,” he handed the bananas to Harry and he took one. “We’ll try to find something to eat when we get to the stadium, let’s get going. I figured we should call an Addison Lee, it will be faster, right?”

“Yeah, great idea,” Harry was already peeling his banana and giving it a bite. “You got the tickets? We’re not forgetting anything?” He asked after gulping the fruit.

“All here,” Louis patted the back pocket of his trousers, “and the car is already in front of the building, let’s go,” Louis said, running to the door. Harry continued to munch on his banana as they left the flat, getting outside the building and putting on their coats.

They got in the car, Louis eating his banana and paying attention to his phone.

Harry could easily take the drive to the stadium to have the talk with Louis, but he figured that with the driver listening, it wouldn’t be a smart thing to do.

His phone vibrated inside his pocket and he fetched it quickly, finding a Twitter notification from Louis. He briefly looked at him on his seat to see Louis with a sneaky smile on his lips.

 _Louis Tomlinson @Louis_Tomlinson  
_ _After a long night yesterday, heading to see Man Utd with the curly @Harry_Styles ;)_

“Come here,” Harry simply said, patting Louis to sit closer to him. Louis scooted over on the seat and Harry put an arm around his shoulder, lifting his other arm holding his phone in front of them. He kissed Louis on the cheek and snapped a picture, trying as best as he could not to take a shaky one with the car moving.

Louis giggled beside him, kissing him back after Harry took the photo.

They were good then.

No weird or awkward post-sex-without-talking-about-it-with-your-best-friend tension between them.

Harry started composing a tweet with the photo attached.

 _Harry Styles. @Harry_Styles  
_ _The date I’ve been waiting for the whole week. Thanks @Louis_Tomlinson Go Reds!_

Louis smiled at Harry as soon as he saw his notification and without even asking, took Harry’s hand in his, intertwining their fingers, bringing it to his lips to place a kiss on the back.

“Thank _you_ ,” he said and Harry didn’t know how to react to Louis demonstrating such romantic affection to him, something he would expect from fake dating Louis. They weren’t pretending there inside the car, not for the driver, and it made Harry’s stomach flutter, only thinking what it all meant for Louis.

Luckily, the drive to the stadium was fast without any major traffic, but not fast enough because they made it just as the game was about to kick off.

They left the car running to get to the gate, Louis with the tickets in hand ready to storm out to their seats. It seemed though that they weren’t the only late spectators and there was a queue to get inside the stadium.

Louis held to Harry’s hand, squeezing it nervously when they finally passed the turnstiles. As much as Harry wanted to just sit down and watch the match, he reminded Louis they needed to grab something to eat. They quickly went to the refreshments, buying hotdogs and pop, not even sitting down at the tables and almost running to the seating area – at least they were located at the Club tier, perks of the BBC giving you tickets.

The match was already 20 minutes in when they found their seats. Amidst finally eating their food and watching the game apprehensively, waiting for a goal from Manchester United, they kept being sweet with each other, not only making comments on the game but also taking the time to register the experience and almost live tweeting what they were doing, posting a few pics of each other.

They were being themselves, the same Louis and Harry they’ve always been, but with the difference that Louis sometimes would squeeze Harry’s hand or pinch his thigh when there wasn’t a need to, some of the pictures were of them kissing each other’s cheeks and with them sharing quick shy glances between each other.

Half-time came and neither Manchester United nor Arsenal had scored any goals and that was making both of them get frustrated at their team’s game. Harry had always found Louis’ cheering endearing to watch every time they saw a match together, but today, it was even more and when Louis said he needed to have a wee to release the tension of the game, Harry couldn’t help but peck him on the lips briefly before Louis got up and went to the toilet, looking back at Harry with fond eyes.

Harry was dying inside to talk to Louis. They could do that during the game, there wasn’t any problem with talking and watching the players knocking the ball around the field, but Harry figured that wasn’t the time. They were finally enjoying something the had waited for all week long, something both of them were passionate about and to bring a conversation Harry didn’t exactly know where it would end (even if he had a feeling things would go in a better way than he expected), it would only kill the mood. They were there for Manchester United, foremost, even though it had been what got them to the place they were now.

The second half kicked off, Louis returning from the toilet just in time to catch the first minutes, but it wasn’t any more relieving than the first half. Both teams were trying hard to score, but at least Manchester United had the best shots so far.

20 minutes in and there had been a lot of difficult passes and missed shots at the goal. After a few corners and the ball passing from player to player, there was a clear chance upon Manchester United that made both Harry and Louis stand to their feet. Pogba had passed down the ball to Herrera, who reached the byline and pulled the ball back to Mata. The midfielder met the pass first time, sidefooting it into the bottom left of the goal, the Arsenal keeper missing it completely.

There was a loud cheer coming from the Manchester United supporters, Harry and Louis cheerfully joining them, screaming “goal!” with arms and fists in the air.

“Fuck yeah! Goal!” Louis yelled, throwing his arm around Harry’s waist bringing him for a half hug. “Finally! I told ya they would score a beautiful one like this, Hazza.”

“It was about time!” Harry turned to hug Louis completely, squeezing him into his arms. Louis enveloped both his arms around Harry’s neck, bringing their bodies even closer.

“I also told ya this would be worth it, right?” Louis said at Harry’s ear, making Harry distance his head a little from Louis to look him in the eye.

“Totally,” Harry replied and without hesitating, he locked his lips with Louis’ thin ones. Louis didn’t even flinch at the touch, giving in into the kiss easily.

They ignored the unnecessary comments that came from some of the people around them, kissing as if there wasn’t almost other 60 thousand people in the place. It felt like there was only the two of them and apparently, none of those people were actually paying any attention to them. No one seemed to care if they were friends or if they were actual or fake boyfriends. What mattered was that Harry was kissing Louis and they were kissing because it felt right to do so.

The noise from the crowd slowed down and so did their kiss. Louis pulled Harry down back to their seats, holding Harry by the arm, caressing them up and down.

“Are we doing this just for pretend, Harry?” Louis asked, looking him intensively, those blue irises of his shining, careful and eager at the same time.

That was it then. There was no more delaying to talk about it. Louis was there, wanting to know what they were doing and Harry knew what he had to say.

“I don’t think I was ever pretending,” he confessed as he bit down on his lip, a little nervous to look back at Louis.

“You,” Louis moved his hand to touch Harry on the chin, “were never pretending?” he made Harry look at him, with a brow arched.

Harry shook his head and Louis got closer, kissing him on the lips briefly. “Louis, you’re my best friend, but I’ve wanted you to be more than that for a real long time.” He breathed deeply as Louis distanced himself a little, softly caressing his cheeks.

“Shit, I’m such a fucking idiot,” Louis laughed slightly, looking down for a moment. Harry took Louis’ hand from his face and entwined in his.

“No, you’re not. I was just too scared to say anything to you because I never thought you’d feel the same for me. I never wanted to lose our friendship if you didn’t like me back, I couldn’t compromise us, so I’d rather have you as a friend than nothing at all.”

“Harry,” Louis looked up as he searched for his lips again. “I am an idiot, let’s get real. I’ve probably always felt something for you and was just as blind to see that we were never just friends. If you had told me, probably when we met, even as young as we were, that you liked me, I would’ve given you the moon back then. It took me more than 10 years to realize that. It took me thinking that pretending to date you was just something normal that two lads could do to realize that I wanted the real thing with you too.”

Harry almost didn’t breathe as Louis spoke. Fucking hell, they were bloody idiots indeed.

“So, are we doing the real thing now?” Harry didn’t want to put Louis in the spotlight, but he just needed Louis to confirm that he wanted to date him, for real now.

“I don’t wanna pretend anymore, Haz. To be honest, I think I have stopped pretending since we first kissed,” Louis smiled coyly at him, “and I’m gonna ask it properly this time. I shouldn’t have done this through the radio before. A Manchester United match seems a lot more appropriate,” he laughed and Harry giggled along, squeezing Louis’ hand. “I know we did this backwards, but, Haz, do you wanna date– real date me?”

Harry smiled at Louis, giddy with love and excitement, because Louis wasn’t fake date-proposing this time. And just like he did on Monday, he knew exactly what to answer.

“Yes, of course yes!” Harry closed the distance between them, trying to kiss Louis while grinning as big as he was.

Louis untangled their hands and got both of his to hold Harry by his face, deepening the kiss.

They had completely forgotten about the game and it wasn’t that Harry didn’t care about Manchester United playing anymore. He did, Manchester United was once again a means to bond with Louis, proving just how much their team meant for them. But honestly? What they had now was bigger than what they felt for Manchester United. It was as loud as the whole crowd that cheered for the team.

It was real this time.

 

**Monday, February 20th**

 

“There we had Little Mix with Touch to wake up our listeners on this Monday morning,” Nick Grimshaw spoke through the radio. “How was your weekend, Fifi?”

“It was a nice one, Nick. How about yours?”

“Not so bad either. Took Pig and Stinky to the park, you know, normal stuff. Kinda wanted to have done some partying, but I’m not so young anymore, Fifi, unfortunately. Unlikely some people I’ve seen on the internet.”

“And who would those people be, Grimmy? You and your internet stalking!” Fifi laughed.

“It’s not stalking when I follow the people and they happen to flood my timeline with a hundred tweets of their date,” Nick replied, mockingly.

“Oh God, who are you talking about, Nicholas?”

“Those sickening lovebirds, of course, Louis and Harry!”

At the mention of their names, Harry laughed slightly as he took a batch of fresh scones from the oven.

Yes, he and Louis had been real extra on Saturday, posting tweets and pictures during the game, and also on Sunday as they had spent the day in.

If they had been already too much during the week when they were just pretending to be boyfriends, now that they had finally gotten things right, they managed to excel themselves. Not on the amount of tweets, because, well, they were busy doing other things in bed. But still, they managed to throw those cheesy tweets for all of their followers to see, causing not only Nick Grimshaw to react to them, but also their friends, who had quickly caught up on what had happened to them after they simply ignored all of their texts on their groupchat.

 **Liam  
** _Is it just me or are they weirdly quiet?_

 **_Zayn  
_ ** _They must be devastated that they went to watch the game and had to see Arsenal tie with Man Utd at the last minute. It’s just weird Louis has not taken his frustrations out on us yet since yesterday._

 **_Niall  
_ ** _I bet they r cuddlin rn…………….. Or sth else_

 **_Liam  
_ ** _What the fuck Ni, why would they?_

 **_Zayn  
_ ** _Liam you are the dumb one now, haven’t you seen their pics?_

 **_Niall  
_ ** _So much for pretendin jesus fuck i almost vomited with those they r so in love they cant even see it i hate them_

 **_Louis  
_ ** _I’d like very much for the three of you nosy shits to shut up right now and let me and harry enjoy our lazy sunday in bed_

 **_Niall  
_ ** _I TOLD YA_

 **_Niall  
_ ** _WAIT IN BED HOW_

 **_Niall  
_ ** _Y R U IN BED_

 **_Niall  
_ ** _TOMMO TALK TO ME I NEED TO KNOW_

 **_Harry  
_ ** _Let’s just say, I said yes, again, for real this time xx_

 **_Zayn  
_ ** _Are you shitting me? Real as in real dating? You sneaky bastards!_

 **_Liam  
_ ** _You are the dumbest and slowest people in love ever! I can’t believe!!!!!!!_

 **_Niall  
_ ** _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FUCKIN FINALLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111_

They left the chat for them to freak out on their own, getting back to their snuggling and snogging and the likes in bed, taking their time to be with each other the way they hadn’t even imagined a week before.

It was just crazy for Harry how the week had gone by, from him thinking that he would just enjoy fake dating Louis to go back to what they had always been and now, there they were, actually dating and talking about their own feelings. Harry had the guts to tell Louis that he had been in love with him for years and Louis said that he was sure that he was already half way there, probably had always been, and that he would do everything he could to make Harry feel as loved as he deserved.

“What have they done, Nick?” Fifi’s voice brought Harry back to his tasks, taking the scones to the display in the front of the bakery.

“Have you forgotten, Fiona? They had the Arsenal and Manchester United match on Saturday. Cutest date ever, according to Twitter, they seemed to have really gotten time for themselves on Sunday. The honeymoon phase never seems to be quite over with these two, they look even more in love than ever. And we have actual proof of that. We’ve got them to record a message for us after the game. Do you think people are ready to listen to it, Fifi?”

“I bet they have been waiting all week to know all about this date! And probably they’ll want to know about the other dates too, right? We’re actually gonna have all the couples interviewed after their dates. You wouldn’t let them all go away like that, would you, Nick?”

“You’re right Fifi, and you are also a genius for coming up with this whole thing. So now, let’s listen to Harry and Louis and after that, there will be some Bebe Rexha coming up!”

Harry almost felt embarrassed for listening to his own voice on the radio and a bit self-conscious with the way Susie was now looking at him, with her knowingly eyes as she served a customer.

After the game was over, Louis told Harry that the people from the BBC asked him when he went to their HQ to retrieve the tickets to find them at their booth at the stadium to give a small interview.

Harry was nervous on what to say and he noticed Louis was too, but what they asked them to talk about was pretty simple: just how happy they were that they had won the contest and how they had enjoyed the game.

“I was really surprised to be called back on Monday and happy that we actually got the tickets. Terrified to have asked Harry out on the radio too, to be honest, but thanks Grimmy for trusting in me and in Harry, and obviously we wouldn’t be here if Harry hadn’t said yes. It all worked out in the end. We had a crazy but awesome week and now we’re finally here,” Louis had said to the interviewer as he looked fondly at Harry.

“I’m not even sad the match ended in a tie. It was a good one, but I’m really happy because I feel like I have won in life after this. Both of us.” Harry added, squeezing Louis hand tightly and kissing him on the cheek.

That had been a long journey. It had been only a week since they had started fake-dating, two days since they had been actually dating, but for Harry it felt like a life time had passed, because he had loved Louis for a long time, even before he actually knew what he wanted in life, but in his mind it was clear that it was Louis all along. He wanted Louis and luckily, Louis wanted him too.

They had been best friends for more than a half of their lives, but they were never just that, Harry now knew. It was like them meeting at 6 and 8 was just fate setting them up to have a lifetime together. They had had a false start, yes, but at least it had been one, and Harry was sure that there was nobody else for him, not with how it just felt right that they belonged together. Maybe it was too soon to know for sure, with them only getting to figure themselves out in the past couple of days, but when Louis told him that he now knew why his heart had never settled with anyone else, Harry had no doubt they had been made for each other. Friends. Best Friends. Boyfriends. Soulmates. Whatever it was, they would always be each other’s home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Photos mentioned in the fic inspired by these manips:  
> [xx](https://em.wattpad.com/4c9c6f26913881354376907f9f7315f6aad94277/687474703a2f2f6f6365616e75702e636f6d2f77702d636f6e74656e742f75706c6f6164732f323031352f30322f6c617272792d7374796c696e736f6e2d6c6f76652d312e6a7067?s=fit&h=360&w=360&q=80) / [xx](http://urfookinjob.tumblr.com/post/139269582564/happy-valentines-day-retweet-aimh) / [xx](https://68.media.tumblr.com/21ae3477441cf240b4ba76ff19b03596/tumblr_inline_mztra4rghy1s8lko4.png) / [xx](http://68.media.tumblr.com/7a43e8898f1e3b4746b5defe50514481/tumblr_mlqj264uw91rjvkg5o1_500.png) / [xx](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/d0/10/bf/d010bf81e15ec59589f54d481380e93c.jpg) / [xx](https://68.media.tumblr.com/937a553ed16d101703fc34b9611834a1/tumblr_inline_mztrf0idas1s8lko4.jpg) / [xx](http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=103338766)  
> All the credits to the creators, I don't know how you are, but if you own any of these, hit us up so we can link the manips properly to you :)
> 
> Real tweets mentioned:  
> [xx](https://twitter.com/louis_tomlinson/status/111405605863960576?lang=e) / [xx](https://twitter.com/harry_styles/status/111407745672036352?lang=en) / [xx](https://twitter.com/harry_styles/status/138955840886546433?lang=en) / [xx](https://twitter.com/harry_styles/status/84056954787475456) / [xx](https://twitter.com/louis_tomlinson/status/84057197314715648) / [xx](https://twitter.com/harry_styles/status/84057489838051328)
> 
> Comments and kudos are always welcome!
> 
>  
> 
> [Fic Post](http://perfectdagger.tumblr.com/post/157669912083/love-is-on-the-radio-so-louis-whos-the-lucky)
> 
>  
> 
> Follow us on tumblr @[perfectdagger](https://www.perfectdagger.com)


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